Well I did it, I did the 5mile run on Sunday in what could only be considered friggin artic tempatures. It was only about 34 degrees when I left for the run with a real feel of about 23 deg according to KYW - I was not looking forward to doing this run. I got to West Chester (which is a good 40mile drive from my house) around 12:20pm (run started at 1pm) and really considered just sitting in my car or even just going home . It was cold and I was by myself ..... but I thought might as well get out of the car and get use to the cold before the run and I can't turn back now I drove all the way here and I told people I was doing this run. So I get out of my car and who is walking up to the start but 4 guys and 1 girl from Africa - Yes that's right they were Kenyans at this West Chester 5 miler...I couldn't believe it and I thought to myself well this isn't good for me. I didn't think there would be professionals or semi-pros here and I didn't know who else would be at the start line.
So I walked up and waited for 40 mins freezing my butt off with the other 900 + people. ( And I would like to say they didn't open the school gym so you could get warm either!!! ) Since I've been trying to run 1 to 2 times a week outside I'm getting a little more tolerant of this cold and it wasn't bad standing out in the sun until the wind started and that was pretty much every 10 seconds. They had some kid races before the real run and that was cute - although I don't think I would have had my 3 yr old outside to run in that cold.
Race started almost on time and took a few seconds to go because when 972 runners are lined up you don't quite move when the gun sounds. The run was nice through the neighborhoods of West Chester (it ran the same streets a couple of times) but in the beginning it was so packed you had to dodge your way through people for about the first full mile. Then the other fun started which was West Chester is HILLY - who knew? I would say about 4miles of that run was some sort of hill, either steep and short or long and steady. Since my legs were numb I wasn't feeling any pain until mile 4 when my running technique goes out the window and my ankles start hurting (I'm hoping I get past this b/c it's really a problem) but I knew only 1 mile left and I couldn't quit. I rounded the corner into the stadium and saw the clock said 44:55 and I only had a lap left to do - I knew my previous 5 mile times were 49:54 and 49:50 so I was excited to see I would beat it despite fighting through a crowd in the beginning, hills, and the freezing temp. I made it around and finished at 46:19 a new record.
I'm glad to be done and the whole time I was running I was thinking I hate this , I'm not doin this again and of course like always when I finished I was thinking when's the next 5 miler or even 10K (6.2 miles) ---- and Jenn is doing 5 miles with me - If i have to suffer so does she =)
So my point after this long post is 2 yrs ago I couldn't run 1 mile and 12/5/10 I ran 5 miles. It really is true you can do anything you put your mind and effort into!!! Don't ever give up or let anyone tell you - you can't!!!!!
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