first 5k?

Wise words? Maybe not....

But do it. I'm like you. I'm pretty introverted and hate being the center of attention. In a 5K, you won't be. There will be tons of other runners there with you. trust me, racing is addictive. I'm a slow runner so I am generally just racing myself, but it's a blast!

No one will judge you if you take a walk break..if they do judge you...they're A**holes.

If you can already run about 3miles, maybe you should sign up for a 5K sooner than October. That's a long time to dwell on one race. Then, you can race again in October for a shiny new PR!!

I can't promise wise words or actual inspiration, but here's my story.

My first 5-K was in September of last year. I signed up for it in February because a friend wanted to run it with me. I never work out with a soul (at that point, I didn’t even like the gym because there were other people there) and I purposefully don’t have any friends via MFP, because I’m also a pretty private person. I’ll share what I want to share, but I’m doing this for myself and never felt the need to have anyone along for the ride. So the idea of running in public, and running with a friend (and her husband) were not pleasant thoughts, but I still signed up.

I happened to be in a time of injury recovery when I did, and I found that knowing that I had signed up for that 5-K later in the year gave me new inspiration. I made a more concerted effort to get the injury healed and found that it drove me to working out on nights that I may have skipped for some lame reason, because I had a goal.

When the day finally came, I felt totally out of my element. I was wearing a baggy t-shirt, some cheap “workout” pants that could be easily mistaken for PJ bottoms, and an old baseball hat from a job I’d had from six years prior. So as I drove to the race, I thought I was going to be totally out of place, look like a schlub and that people would be wondering what the heck I was doing showing my face there.

Turned out that there were other folks there wearing similar stuff, or “worse” stuff, that I would never have considered running in. And not a single person around me cared what I was wearing, what I was doing to warm up or basically anything about what I was doing. But I was still nervous as hell.

As soon as the race started though, it was pure adrenaline. I loved every single minute from the time I crossed that starting line to when I triumphantly crossed the finish line. No one worried about what I was doing and no one cared if I was going slower than them or faster. I ran a personal best, but nothing special on the time. Sure I wasn't the "winner" but I wasn't trying to win, I still came in well ahead of most of the pack, even at my own little pace.

And while, even up to that morning I didn’t think I’d ever run another race ever again, I suddenly wanted to do more. And longer distances. I talked about it with my friend (who, by the way, I barely saw on the run because we were both just doing our thing) and with my hubby when I got home, laughing each time about the crazy people we know that run half marathons and that I’d never get that crazy.

But very soon after the 5-K I was signed up for a 7-K a month later and then a 10-K a month after that. Each one was more fun than the last and made me just want to keep doing more. I’m currently training for my first Half Marathon that will be on April 8th, have a 12-K on May 20th, a 5-K with the same friend in September and my second Half Marathon the day after the 5-K. And then I’ll be coaching a friend through Couch to 5K to get her able to run a 5-K in November, which I’ll be running with her.

So I say to sign up for the 5-K. Don’t worry about anyone else that will be anywhere around you or what anyone will think, do it for you because you’ve got that itch to do it. I think you’re going to have an awesome time, and you’ll probably be amazed at the number of people that are utterly impressed if they do happen to find out that you finished a 5-K.

Just do it.

I was SO nervous before my first 5k too but you should definitely do it it's really fun! I know what helped me was I did it with my sisters the first time and we ran together so that made it a lot easier. But don't worry about speed there's so many people there and a lot of times there are people who leisurely walk it so there's a big range of speeds! I have never EVER been a runner and I really enjoyed it so you should definitely do it!

no one cares if you can't run the whole thing. I had a few walk breaks in my 5K's I have done.