Running with Friends

My first ever 5K is tomorrow. I'm not at all ready. I've only run (without walking) the whole distance a couple of times. I had hoped to run tomorrow's course as a practise last weekend but when it was time, it was pouring rain, so I ran it on the treadmill instead, sans hills. I have never run in company before, and am not really sure what that part of the experience will be like.

Tomorrow's number looks like a lucky one!

Every bit of my running is consciously layered with my thoughts of my friends, however, so I'm never really running alone. I first got the notion to do this around Christmas time, but I was partially prompted by my friend KCF, who wrote of venturing onto the city streets with a trainer back when she first started blogging. Honestly, the notion had never occurred to me, at least not for years. And my iPod has some of the songs she recommended for the running playlist back then. My friend Liz wrote of her handy treadmill, and helped solidify my desire for one this year. I remain in awe of her pre-dawn swims, even in the dark and cold winters. My friend Z was the only fitness fanatic among my college friends - and besides the inspiration of her 22 year-old self dedicated to running and swimming, she gave me the tip to keep the treadmill at a slight incline always: "better on your knees".  And I have friends I've never met who run beside me as inspiration: Alice, a runner in high school, now with her boot camp, her bike rides, and now her training for a much longer run than me. And folks I admire and look to for inspiration: Jack Sh*t, Jenette Fulda, formerly known as the Pasta Queen, still running four years into an epic headache, and, chief among them, the empress of all  weight loss and fitness blogs: Sheryl Yvette. This is a woman who rides her bike to 5Ks, and who will be doing the NYC marathon soon.  "Run when you can, walk if you must, but never quit!".

I'm woefully undertrained for this event, but I know I can finish.  Frankly, I've been in such a funk for a few weeks that if I hadn't told y'all I was doing this I probably would have just quit.  But I'm going to do this, and I'll do another one next week (with less of a hill!) and I'm going to look for a run in the fall, to try to keep myself honest all summer.  I have some private goals for how I'd like to finish for this, but last year's last finisher took 64 minutes, and I know I can walk the whole thing faster than that! So my only public goal is not to be last.  Let's hope the slowpokes show up again this year.