Proof that one should only run when chased....

It's that time of year again when the 5K's start happening every weekend and I get it in my head that this will be THE YEAR that I will finally lose that weight and be healthy.

Well......my ever faithful friend Karen agreed to run the St. Patricks Day 5K located in one of the Naval housing communities, down by the water.

It was to be my first 5K in nearly 8 months and in those 8 months I had put on about 20 pounds thus topping 200. Though I'd been doing cardio in the form of step classes, I new that there was no way I was even going to come close to finishing in less than my slowest time of last year - 43 minutes.

Despite all this I was feeling pretty excited about our race.....until I woke up that morning to crazy winds and freezing rain.

I texted Karen at 7 a.m. asking her if she'd looked outside. I was secretly hoping she'd want to cancel.

NOPE

We'd paid our race fee - we were going.

Can you see why I picked her as my workout buddy? She's good at keeping me motivated.

We get out there and it's so cold that whatever nipply bits I did have received frostbite. It was all we could do to not flee to the car while we waited for them to start the race.

The 1 mile and the 5K started at the same time, with the milers veering off into a different direction at the half-mile point.

With my legs feeling like frozen blocks and my feet soaked from the rain, it was all I could do to keep moving. And it was all I could do to stay motivated after I realized a friggin 3 YEAR OLD - YES - 3 YEAR OLD had beaten me to the half-mile spot.

About halfway through I realized I was getting lapped..... then a little after that I realized that I was dead last...then it started to hail.

Did I mention that despite all this I was actually ahead of my normal pace?

Finally toward the end I hit a nice downhill section and realized that I might actually be able to come in under 43 minutes. The finish line was in site, I was hurting but also feeling hopeful......UNTIL.... I SAW..... THE HILL.

Yep, they had a friggin steep hill that I had to haul my chubtastic carcass up in order to complete the final .3 miles of the race.

Let's just say I hit the wall.

I felt a little defeated and it was all I could do to keep walking.

But then I heard someone running behind me and discovered Karen - who had already finished the race - had joined me to help push me through the last .2 miles.

She ran side by side with me, keeping me from giving up and pushing me almost to the point of hurling, across the finish line at a time of 44:40.


It was a humbling experience but also proved to me that I not only have the coolest friend ever but that I can do this and it will get better.

Hopefully a few pounds will come off betweent his race and the next one I'm training for.