Saturday, Leah and I completed our first race: a 5K run/walk fund-raiser, sponsored by SLIM, to benefit kids in Malawi. And, "completed" really was the appropriate word. (We had no idea what our time should be finishing the race, but since our goal was to complete it, we feel pretty pleased with ourselves.)

You may recall that we were following a 13-week run/walk program last semester. Well, we managed to stretch the 13-weeks to nearly twice as many weeks with a series of missed days for all sorts of reasons, not the least of which was Pittsburgh's unpleasant winter weather. We also cleverly repeated some days due to Leah's tendency to get side stitches. So by Saturday, our program called for 8 minutes of running and 2 minutes of walking, repeated 5 times. Rather than skip ahead for the race, we fulfilled the 5K's namesake and ran/walked alternately for 8/2 minutes for the length of the race.

For me, consciously switching from running to walking during a race required some mental deconditioning. How incongruous was it to not strive to win a race? But, the race was a fund-raiser, at peaceful park to which we had never been, and our first race; all of which calmed my outlook. In the end, we were pleased with our run and complimentary T-shirts and are looking forward to our next race on April 21st, for which our only goal is to beat our current time.

Posted by David | Permalink