My First 5K: The Color Run Richmond

The long awaited 5K that I was training for came and went!  It was Saturday, September 15th in Richmond, VA and I am so glad that I followed through and completed it!  My only goal for myself was to run the entire 3.1 miles and I did it!  I am so proud of myself for coming from being a "Couch" person to a "5K" runner.  Just a couple of months ago, the idea of running 3 miles seemed absolutely crazy and now I can do it!  The run itself was so much fun and I highly recommend any of The Color Runs to anyone that is interested in running or walking in a 5K.

The run started at 9:00 a.m. and Richmond is an hour away from our house so we had to get up and moving pretty early on a Saturday morning.  Not to mention Kellan woke up at 4:45 and by the time I got him back to sleep it was time for me to get up!  Michael, Kellan, my mom who came to visit for the weekend, Ansley, her mom, and me left our house around 7:00 and headed north.

On the way there Michael realized that we were REALLY low on gas and by the time we pulled over to get some he was afraid that we would be late.  So I hopped out, got in the car with Ansley and her mom and Michael, my mom, and Kellan met us at the race.  Everything turned out fine and they somehow managed to beat us there...Michael probably ran someone off the road, but everyone got there on time and all in one piece.

Here we are before the run...all clean and color-less.

Me with my number 1 boy!

Someone thoroughly enjoyed themselves

There were somewhere around 8,000 runners...LOTS of people!

We're in there somewhere crossing the finish line.  Apparently the guy with the Afro moved right into Michael's way right when we crossed so he didn't get a better picture of us.

We did it!  We ran all 3.1 miles!  We're not sure of what our exact time was since this was a fun race and was not officially timed.  Ansley tried to keep up with it on her phone and we think it was somewhere around 33 minutes.  This was definitely a walkers' 5K and we probably could have had better time if we didn't have to bob and weave around people the entire way!  A few runners that were rolling around in the orange powder in the middle of the path slowed us down as well...but it was all fun!    This was an excellent 5K for my first time.  It was totally uncompetitive and all about having a good time.

The post-race Color Party

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Me with Kellan and my mom

My next "training" is going to be for jumping...I am seriously challenged when it comes to high jumping...it was really pathetic.

Running is something I am going to try really hard to keep up so that I can improve my distance and speed.  I cannot recommend enough the Couch to 5K training program.  If you stick with it, it will really take you from the couch to running a 5K.  My best advice is not to give up.  If you have a day where you have a really difficult time keeping up with the program, just repeat it the next day...but don't give up!  If you keep running you WILL improve each time.  The program only has you running 3 days a week but if you have an off week just pick back up as soon as you can.  There were lots of busy weeks that I missed 3 even 4 days in a row so I just ran on the next possible day.  The most important thing is to give yourself the full 9 weeks to train and don't stop!  Anyone and I do mean anyone...can do it.  I also recommend signing up for a fun, non-competitive 5K about 3 months or so from when you start training.  That way you can't come up with excuses to put off running.  Once you sign up for a run it really motivates you to train because you will want to be able to run as well as you can for the race.  I am really proud of myself and can't believe that the run has already came and went...so much fun and very empowering all at the the same time!