In honor of our Veterans, I decided to run my second 5K yesterday. It is near and dear to my heart because I have Veterans in my family, as so many others do.
My aunt and I ran the RIT Veteran's Day 5K/10K. We ran the 5K, obviously. My aunt is a retired Navy Chief Petty Officer, as is her husband, my uncle, my mom's brother. Another uncle is retired from the Navy as well. Tim's grandfather was in the armed forces, as well as my grandfather. They are both no longer with us.
My goal for this 5K was to beat my last 5K time of 45:08. Even though I had to walk several minutes during this 5K because of a side stitch, I still beat my last time by over a minute with 43:38. My aunt's goal was to simply run the whole thing. And she did. She finished in 40:something, without walking.
As I neared the finish line, I saw her walking in my direction. As I got closer, she started running along side me, encouraging me to finish strong. It was the most amazing and unexpected thing. I had planned on trying to finish strong and pick up speed toward the finish and she helped me that much more.
I am definitely feeling it today, and I think tomorrow will be worse. But it is so totally worth it.
My husband mentioned that he might give running another shot because he sees how much I enjoy it and it is something that we can do together. That is exciting!
Here are some pictures:
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| Color Guard standing at the ready |
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| Color Guard standing at the ready |
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| Color Guard Presenting |
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| Moment of Silence |
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| My Aunt (Left) and I before - I'm wearing Army for my best friend who is currently in Basic |
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| Another before |
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| 10K-ers starting before us |
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| Post-run selfie |
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| Post-run, Post-shower, New Shirt Selfie |
We are already thinking of our next run. I think the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving is too soon as it is only 2 and a half weeks away, but we will see at the end of this week how we are feeling.
There are also 2 runs to choose from in December, unless we opt to do both, which I think is a bit much.
I have always planned on training for my first 10K in the spring. I think if I continue running periodically through the winter and start increasing runs at the end of March that I'll be able to run the 10K at the Lilac Festival in May.
Then, we got this crazy, hair-brained idea that in the 2 months between the 10K at the Lilac Festival and July when there is a half marathon in our town (instead of us driving to the city for a run), that we have plenty of time to completely double our running distance. I don't think so, though. I'm thinking maybe, maybe, I can plan on a half marathon next fall. That's a big maybe. I kind of like the idea of one major accomplishment a year. This year was a 5K (or multiple), next year can be my 10K (or multiple), and then focus on the half after that. I guess we'll see how it goes.
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