July 4, 2012 – the day after my 50th birthday. I woke up early to do something I’d never done before – participate in a 5k run. To say that I ran in a 5k would be somewhat of an exaggeration. Oh, I did run, sort of. Basically, I accomplished my goal …. I finished.
The good news is I wasn’t the last person to cross the finish line. In fact, I finished first in my group. Impressive, huh? Of course, my group was kind of a sub-group. I finished 8th in the 50-54 category, but I was first in the “50 year olds who had a birthday the previous day who live in Union Point and serve as pastor of a church” category. I was untouchable in that category! My time was not record-breaking, but I did finish ahead of all the women pushing strollers.
Having survived my first 5k, I made some observations as I “ran” –
1. Leave your male pride at the starting line. Enough said.
2. The expression “slow and steady wins the race” is hogwash. Fast and steady works way better.
3. It’s a whole lot easier to do 3+ miles on a treadmill in the air-conditioning.
4. Hills look a lot flatter from the driver’s seat of a car.
5. The monitors riding on the four-wheelers frown on hitchhiking racers.
6. The reason they provide tee shirts to the runners is because you’re going to need a dry shirt after you sweat out 4 bottles of water.
Now that I am an expert on road racing, if you need any advice let me know. As usual, if I don’t know something, I’ll make up something really good!
Be Transformed 