Heath's Random Thoughts

Shamrock Shuffle...I Actually Did It!

Last year when I met Kelly, she started getting me into running. Anyone who really knows me probably just laughed, and rightfully so. It's not that I live an inactive lifestyle. Quite the contrary. I would much rather be outside, hiking, camping, fishing, walking around the neighborhood than sitting at home. Furthermore, I love to participate in all kinds of sports including basketball, football, bowling, soccer, etc. You name it and I have tried it or would be willing too. But, for some reason I never really got into running for the sake of running. I had a brief stint in track and field where I performed fairly well in the sprinting competitions, but never latched on to it like I did other sports.

Well, the year before I met Kelly I decided to sign up for the Chase Corporate Challenge here in the city. Mainly, because my company offered to pay half the entry fee if we signed up and wore a shirt with their logo on it. So I figured why not. I could use the exercise and it might be fun. Well, I ran/walked the entire 3.5 miles and really didn't enjoy it much. I had a terrible finish time and my joints were in a lot of pain. I then went the rest of the year without running another race.

Then, just before I met Kelly, my college buddy Dan asked me if I wanted to run in the Muddy Buddy with him later that year. I had heard of the race before and it sounded like fun so I agreed more for fun than for competition. Then a few weeks later I met Kelly. I told her about this race I was in and she suggested that I sign up for a serious of 5k races with her to make sure I got in shape enough to run my race with Dan. Well the first one we ran together was the Corporate Challenge and I did a ton better when I ran it with her. After that I tried a series of races and really began to enjoy them. They were all 5k's (3 miles) and I never really thought I would do any longer than that, until this winter when Kelly convinced me to sign up for the Shamrock Shuffle with her. It is an 8k (5 miles) race. I was a little concerned about the distance but she set up a training program for me that I was able to stick with for the most part, except for the few weeks that I had the flu. Well come race day I was really nervous that I wouldn't be able to run the whole thing and that I would hold Kelly back.

The race started out tough, with my legs and joints tightening up within the first mile or so. I told Kelly to go on without me because I wasn't sure how the pain was going to be. So, for the next mile I ran alone, but started to notice some of the pain go away, by 2.5 miles I had caught back up with Kelly again and we ran the next mile and half together and then somehow got split up while running through the water station. I went the next 3/4 of a mile by myself wondering where she was. Apparently, I had got ahead of her and didn't realize it. She caught up to me with about 1/4 a mile to go and we crossed the finish line together. Finishing the full 5 miles in about 50 minutes. We averaged about 10 minutes miles and ran the last mile the fastest at around 9.5 minutes. This was a great time considering I fully expected to have to walk parts of the race, but thanks to Kelly's support I ran the whole thing.

Next up the Race to Wrigley. Its a slightly shorter (5k) race, but should be fun because you finish the race by running through the concourse at Wrigley Field. The proceeds got to Cubs charities.

Labels: exercise, Running

posted by Heath @ 11:15 AM