My First 5K

For the past two months I’ve been training for my first 5k. I signed up for the training through Weight Watchers as part of their Momentum Challenge this summer. It was a pretty cool deal, you signed up and got to work with a trainer for eight weeks, getting you ready for a 5k at the end of the training. Plus, I got a cool 5k charm for my WW keychain. So anyway, Saturday was the 5k our team had signed up for. We chose the McKinney Historical Run 5k. And let me just say, for the record, that we were walking not running. I’m not quite up to the whole running thing yet, as my knees keep telling me! Our team has basically been walking a 5K every Saturday morning for the past several weeks in training. So, we knew we were totally ready for the big day.

I had to get up at the ass-crack-of-dawn (aka 5am), in order to meet up with my team and get out to the race. Eric packed me snacks for before and after the race, so I was all set.

At 8am, we all converged at the starting line (unfortunately, their sign only said “finish”. Fail.)

And we’re off! My goal for the race was to finish in under an hour, to enjoy myself, keep up a good pace and take some photos along the way.

This is where our paths diverged from the people doing the 1 mile fun run. One of the ladies on our team did the 1 mile, with a cane. She rocks!

One of the things I loved about doing this race was that the route took us through the McKinney Historic District, and there were some gorgeous homes along the way. I love the bunting on this one. One of these days I’ll have a beautiful wrap-around porch that will lend itself to bunting on the 4th.

I was glad to see our first mile marker!

Look at the gorgeous red gate at this house!!

Another mile down!

I don’t know where my photo of the Mile 3 marker went, but trust me I passed it. And it was so cool because along with the race people who were along the route cheering us on, there were also people out on their porches and waving through their windows. All of them were cheering and waving and shouting “good job, keep it up!” It was so cool!

And in about 56 minutes, we made it to the finish line. And we were not last.

I cannot tell you what an accomplishment this is, and how proud of myself I am. To a lot of people, walking a 5k may not seem like much. But, it is.

I’m so glad that not only did I do this myself, but that I had a great team to do it with. And, completing this milestone I can now cross something else off my 101 Things list “Participate in a fitness event”. And, I’m also signed up for two more 5Ks this year, one in September and one in October. This was a great experience!