The Family's First 5K

Now that Ironman is over, I'm free to do pretty much whatever I feel like for a while. So when I heard that the Susan G Komen Race For The Cure 5K was this past weekend, I suggested to Scott that we sign up and do it. He was game! I'm a big fan of the Race For The Cure. Being a cancer survivor myself, it holds a nice little place in my heart, and I do it any chance I get.

I think when he agreed to sign up, Scott was envisioning a nice little jog with me where we might take turns pushing the baby jogger while chit chatting about the scenery. And truth be told, that's what I was envisioning as well. But then, just out of curiosity, I asked him, "How fast can you run a 5K?" To which he replied, "I don't know. I've never run one."

What? Never run one? Seriously? Never run a 5K? How could that be? Well clearly, he needed to run it. The sick sadistic side of me decided that he needed to know what pain felt like- he needed to feel how hard it was to push on a run when you're all done pushing but the finish line is still a mile away. Yes, he needed to feel that.

So there I started it... the goading... the I can do it in 21:40 but I don't think you can run it faster than that... You're not going to let Nalani beat you, are you?? etc. I'm not a very nice wife.

Sunday morning came and the alarm went off early. I started back up on him... are you nervous? It's gonna hurt... You're eating that for breakfast?? Ooooh, a black shirt. I don't know about that... Oh no! You can't wear cotton socks!! My even keeled husband refused to bite though, knowing how hard I was trying to bait him. He just smiled and told me that he refused to get sucked into my crazy little world. Lol.

I fed Moana her pre-race bottle and hoped that she wouldn't bonk during the race.
She was quite excited before the run started and wanted to get in a good warm up. It was hard to keep up with her!

Scott pretended not to be nervous, but he made sure he got in some good stretching before the gun went off.

As people moved to line up for the start, I sent Scott up to the front while I hung back with Moana and the jogger. I figured I should be polite and let most people line up in front of me, which turned out to be a mistake. Even with the jogger I can easily run under 9 minute pace, which turns out to be faster than most of the people I lined up behind. Negotiating that big jogger in and out of crowds and around people without hitting their heels is a way bigger challenge than I anticipated when the roads are narrow. But whatever. I didn't really care about my finish time- I just didn't want to ram Moana into too many people so I was happy when the crowds finally thinned out after the first 2 miles. Though I will admit I felt a strange competitiveness with a woman I saw pushing her baby up ahead of me at about mile 1. It was my mission to catch her and pass her. Which I did. Ha. Seriously, I need to let it go sometimes.

Anyway, finding Scott at the finish line was fun. He had the classic beginner 5K story... said he ran as fast as he could right from the gun, and then about a half mile in felt like he couldn't breathe anymore and had to slow down. He said he spent the rest of the race alternatively speeding up and slowing down as people passed him and then he tried to pass them back. He was cute- like a little kid smiling as he was telling his race story. :) He finished in 25 minutes flat. Not bad for someone whose only run training comes on the soccer field.

So how did Moana do in her very first 5K? Unfortunately, she bonked.