From "Running isn't for me.." to Run-a-Muck 5k in 6 Months
IAmMadeOfMeat
Posts: 8 Member
I've learned a little trick to success this year, a special move I've spammed whenever the opportunity arises: say "Yes."
In January of this year, I went to an apartment party at the home of some friends I'd just made weeks prior. This journey started with me saying yes to one too many drinks, which lead to an out-of-character experience for me when the host of the party mused about wanting to get back into running 5ks. Her neighbor chimed in that wouldn't it be great if we could assemble a team to do a 5k mud run in the summer. Fueled by bravado, I said, "I'm totally on board with this!" And totally a little bit drunk.
But here's the kicker: I'd never in my life run a 5k. Or even really done team sports in school, or any sort of disciplined running outside of casual basketball for which I am always noted as not giving it my all. I knew it was madness to express interest in this (a 5k! With military-style obstacles!) and had nothing to prove to either of these two fine folks I'd just met, but I'd just gotten back into weight-lifting three months prior and wanted a goal to motivate myself to actually work on my heart rather than just my rippling pectorals.
Ahem.
Sobering up the next morning, I asked myself "WHAT HAVE I DONE?!?", but I had no intention of backing out. For the next 6 months, I began the arduous sweat-tacular process of learning how to run for more than 3 minutes without wanting to collapse into a pile of gooey regrets.
Because my 3 teammates were all already fit or "recovering fit" and had tons of experience running, I opted to train at my own pace so as not to hold them back. Good choice! I had a ton of catching up to do.
I tried to commit to jogging at least twice (but aiming for three times) per week, hopefully increasing the length of time I could run every week while doing the walk/run routine. From my teammate's estimate, the obstacle course could probably be completed in under 30 minutes, so my goal time was always set for no more than 30 minutes.
Each week, I managed to make tiny improvements, but each one felt triumphant to me (running for 7 straight minutes?? holy crap!). Each week, I pushed myself by degrees so that I wouldn't be the teammate who held the rest of the team back... too much.
6 months later, the time had come.
There were 200 teams in our time slot at this sold-out event, many of them looking to be in fantastic shape. My goal, being realistic, was simply "completion." I had no expectations and no idea how well I'd do relative to everyone else. But really: this was about proving to myself that I could do this, that my dedication could make an athlete out of me yet, even though I'd never pushed myself beyond casual intramural-style activities. We started off around the middle of the giant mass of people and took off in unison, with no game plan to speak of.
What happens next is about an hour of burning and being pushed by my teammates to levels I didn't think possible for myself. Despite no previously shared game-plan, my teammates are very methodical about overtaking everyone in sight, and all I can do to keep up is ignore the burning in my legs and the crazy fast heart-rate that I've never experienced before; I just have to keep my eyes on the ground to dodge all the roots and watch my step on the loose, wet rocks everywhere.
And then holy crap, tires!
That's me on the right, thinking "oh God, how am I still standing??" We've already burst through half a dozen obstacles and are finally in the downhill portion of the race. At this point, we start to pass runners who have been walking, and they reveal that they were from the previous time slot. We ask them how many are ahead of us, and they say "About a dozen, I think."
About a dozen. About a dozen!
Suddenly, I've got my second wind; up until this point I hadn't even considered the possibility of not only finishing this race but finishing in the top 5. Pleased by my surge in speed, my team carries on at a faster pace than ever. This competitive motivation carries us without missing a beat to the finish line, having passed a handful of others.
We finish together, as is the rules of the competition, and we see dozens of others ahead of us past the finish line. We can't be sure if these groups are from our time slot or from the previous. But soon, we're approached by a race organizer with a clipboard who asks when we started racing. "2:30," we say.
She smiles warmly at us and says, "Congrats! You guys took second place."
The sheer joy I felt at that moment! I never expected at any point in this--6 months ago drinking with new friends or at any point during training--that I would get a medal for this crazy whim of an event. I didn't think for a moment that others would be looking up at me on a stage as someone who outraced others, someone who had never attempted a race in his life.
This was a triumph. I'm making a note here: huge success. Whenever another opportunity like this comes along, I'm definitely saying yes.
In closing, forgive me my pastiness!
In January of this year, I went to an apartment party at the home of some friends I'd just made weeks prior. This journey started with me saying yes to one too many drinks, which lead to an out-of-character experience for me when the host of the party mused about wanting to get back into running 5ks. Her neighbor chimed in that wouldn't it be great if we could assemble a team to do a 5k mud run in the summer. Fueled by bravado, I said, "I'm totally on board with this!" And totally a little bit drunk.
But here's the kicker: I'd never in my life run a 5k. Or even really done team sports in school, or any sort of disciplined running outside of casual basketball for which I am always noted as not giving it my all. I knew it was madness to express interest in this (a 5k! With military-style obstacles!) and had nothing to prove to either of these two fine folks I'd just met, but I'd just gotten back into weight-lifting three months prior and wanted a goal to motivate myself to actually work on my heart rather than just my rippling pectorals.
Ahem.
Sobering up the next morning, I asked myself "WHAT HAVE I DONE?!?", but I had no intention of backing out. For the next 6 months, I began the arduous sweat-tacular process of learning how to run for more than 3 minutes without wanting to collapse into a pile of gooey regrets.
Because my 3 teammates were all already fit or "recovering fit" and had tons of experience running, I opted to train at my own pace so as not to hold them back. Good choice! I had a ton of catching up to do.
I tried to commit to jogging at least twice (but aiming for three times) per week, hopefully increasing the length of time I could run every week while doing the walk/run routine. From my teammate's estimate, the obstacle course could probably be completed in under 30 minutes, so my goal time was always set for no more than 30 minutes.
Each week, I managed to make tiny improvements, but each one felt triumphant to me (running for 7 straight minutes?? holy crap!). Each week, I pushed myself by degrees so that I wouldn't be the teammate who held the rest of the team back... too much.
6 months later, the time had come.
There were 200 teams in our time slot at this sold-out event, many of them looking to be in fantastic shape. My goal, being realistic, was simply "completion." I had no expectations and no idea how well I'd do relative to everyone else. But really: this was about proving to myself that I could do this, that my dedication could make an athlete out of me yet, even though I'd never pushed myself beyond casual intramural-style activities. We started off around the middle of the giant mass of people and took off in unison, with no game plan to speak of.
What happens next is about an hour of burning and being pushed by my teammates to levels I didn't think possible for myself. Despite no previously shared game-plan, my teammates are very methodical about overtaking everyone in sight, and all I can do to keep up is ignore the burning in my legs and the crazy fast heart-rate that I've never experienced before; I just have to keep my eyes on the ground to dodge all the roots and watch my step on the loose, wet rocks everywhere.
And then holy crap, tires!
That's me on the right, thinking "oh God, how am I still standing??" We've already burst through half a dozen obstacles and are finally in the downhill portion of the race. At this point, we start to pass runners who have been walking, and they reveal that they were from the previous time slot. We ask them how many are ahead of us, and they say "About a dozen, I think."
About a dozen. About a dozen!
Suddenly, I've got my second wind; up until this point I hadn't even considered the possibility of not only finishing this race but finishing in the top 5. Pleased by my surge in speed, my team carries on at a faster pace than ever. This competitive motivation carries us without missing a beat to the finish line, having passed a handful of others.
We finish together, as is the rules of the competition, and we see dozens of others ahead of us past the finish line. We can't be sure if these groups are from our time slot or from the previous. But soon, we're approached by a race organizer with a clipboard who asks when we started racing. "2:30," we say.
She smiles warmly at us and says, "Congrats! You guys took second place."
The sheer joy I felt at that moment! I never expected at any point in this--6 months ago drinking with new friends or at any point during training--that I would get a medal for this crazy whim of an event. I didn't think for a moment that others would be looking up at me on a stage as someone who outraced others, someone who had never attempted a race in his life.
This was a triumph. I'm making a note here: huge success. Whenever another opportunity like this comes along, I'm definitely saying yes.
In closing, forgive me my pastiness!
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Replies
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That is amazing and so motivational! Congrats on your success!0
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That's AWESOME! Congrats!0
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Wow that is awesome you have every right to be proud, and through all of it seemed like you having some fun0
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Wow congrats, that is an awesome story. I need some motivation like this to get me running in the morning. Being ex-military and out of shape I want to run again (used to be able to run 8 miles, now I couldn't run 1/4 mile without dieing) I must find something like this in my area.0
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Way to go!! Love your story telling!!0
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You rock! I agreed to do the Dirty Girl Mud Run in my area with a group of already fit friends and I'm scared sh*tless but nevertheless, I'm going to finish it! Thank you so much for posting this it's exactly what I needed
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Gonna take a moment and brag cuz that's my fiance ;-) Brag brag brag look how cute he is!! Oh, right, and he totally killed that thing... which, by the way, would have killed ME in the first few minutes. I've got some catching up to do!!0
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Very, very excellent.0
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Awesome stuff. My sister and some friends just completed the Warrior Dash race in Barrie Ontario on the weekend, and it looked like a blast. I'm definitely going to be in shape to run it next year with them.
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That is sooooooo cool!!! I am so motivated now to continue with my training, believe you me this week I'm supposed to run 7 minutes and walk 2 until I complete 3 miles! So thank you for posting!0
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Fantastic!!!!
And it completely parallels my experience, going from a non-runner to Warrior Dash in 6 months, with a little nudge from vodka. :laugh:0 -
This is awesome! Congrats on finishing second! 0
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Rock on!!0
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Awesome! Congratulations :drinker:0
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That is a fantastic story! And I LOVE how you wrote it!! Congrats....and great job saying "Yes"!0
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Great job! Second place to boot! Very inspiring story. For once, alcohol helped since it got you into that in the first place lol0
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Congratulations - that's a wonderful story and you should feel so proud of yourself! - And I love how your fiance is on the post all proud of her man - how cute are you guys? Keep running, get your girl to do it too...I'm 41, just started running six months ago, and I LOVE what it does for me - wish I started years ago but glad I'm doing it now....! :-)0
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Nice! :drinker:0
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Such an amazing story!! You did brilliantly, well done 0
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Schweeet!0
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I loved your story. It hit so close to home. Great job!0
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Thank you for sharing.. Very motivational... 0
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Congrats! 0
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This story is AWESOME!!!!! Congrats to you and your pals!0
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Love this post...thanks for sharing0
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Okay you have added fuel to my fire....I have decided to do the 10 week running program and my 13 year old son and I are going to run our first 5k in October...thank you!!!!0
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Awesome stuff. My sister and some friends just completed the Warrior Dash race in Barrie Ontario on the weekend, and it looked like a blast. I'm definitely going to be in shape to run it next year with them.
Ahahaha, that is a wonderful image. Congrats to your sis!
Fun facts: the other two guys in the team were up until 4 AM the night before, getting drunk at a concert, and one of them was a little tipsy on vodka before the start of the race. I guess that's my next running goal, to do a 5k Mud Run while hungover and on less than 3 hours of sleep.
Also, when the first 3 of us got together that morning, it was a coincidence that we were all wearing blue shorts, so we made sure to tell the 4th guy to wear blue shorts, too. But then I was the only one without a tank top, so we made a last minute decision to go topless. Teamwork!
Thanks for all the accolades, everyone.
Hi, Hannah!0 -
Hi, Hannah!
LMAO. Hi Matt
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Congratulations. I really love reading your post. That's what this is all about. Thanks for sharing your story and sharing pictures.
Keep up the great work!0 -
You have such a way with words. Really enjoyed reading your story. I'm a 53 year old woman and last year after completing the Couch 2 5k Program I signed up my friend and husband in the New Year's Day Resolution Run. My husband backed out complaining about a couple of broken ribs he got at non contact hockey so It was me and my friend. Despite winter it was a great day and we had a good race. Definitely no Olympians but we finished and felt great. After that we thought we better commit to another challenge so we all signed up for the Warrior Dash in Barrie Ontario at the Horseshoe Valley Ski Resort. I should of thought about that. But I didn't. Saturday morning I texted my friend and said "I'm scared" and she texted back "It's all your fault!" A 53 year old with an extra 40 lbs has no business doing these things but sometimes insanity reigns. I was shooting to complete the race in an hour. I know how long it takes me to do my slow 5k run and I factored some time in for the obstacles but I forgot to factor in those dang hills. It took me 1 hour 15 minutes but I did survive and have the t-shirt. Hubby did it in 37 minutes. He always runs twice as fast as me and his legs are twice as long too. My beautiful friend also beat me by 16 minutes. Next year I hope to lose the extra weight and prove that I can do it in an hour.
Congrats on your excellent results. That was my dream but it didn't happen quite that way. Although I guess I keep telling myself I know a lot of people who are younger than me and probably couldn't do it.0
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