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So I ran my first 5K (5K = 3.1 miles) on Sunday, October 12th. On the Saturday night before, I met up with some good friends for a beer at Oktoberfest. Thom and I had to leave at 10pm to get home to attempt sleep before my 5K.
We did not really succeed in getting sleep. We got to his place at 11pm and I got an hour of sleep while Thom took care of the dogs. He climbed into bed around midnight and I always tease him that he's too sexy and I can't help myself when he cuddles with me. So we got little to no sleep before the 4:30am alarm went off.
We made it to the train station at 5:45am and rode it all the way down to Long Beach to get to the Marathon Starting Line. The crowds were intense and there were 2,000 people there just for the 5K walk/run and thousands more for the Bike, Half and Full Marathons.
I tried to find my online running buddies but found them after the race to congratulate them on finishing their first Half Marathons.
While I prepped for my 5K, my ipod kept crashing and wouldn't stay on. I found Thom and gave it to him to hold and I ran 3.1 miles without my music and without someone to chat with. I'm not used to running without distraction and I had no choice but to listen to the sound of my breathing. And my breathing sucks... I'm asthmatic and having to listen to my breath almost made me panic. I breathe pretty hard even in the controlled pattern that I've learned to do for running to keep from hyperventilating.
I haven't used an inhaler in over two years as I wanted to stop taking steroids and the like. Instead I have learned how to control my breathing and how to slow it down. One great way is to put your hands over your head or on your hips and push your elbows back to open up your lungs while breathing in through the nose to slow it down and breathe out through the mouth.
This has worked really well for me since I don't have acute asthma. Plus I've been working hard to build up my lung capacity while running by breathing through my mouth and nose simultaneously and using my belly to open up the diaphragm. In other exercises, I pull in my belly to strengthen my core but in running that makes me get side pains from a lack of oxygen.
Anyway, I finished the 5K in 29:11 at an average pace of 9:24/mile. Not my PR/PB "Personal Best" but not bad for 2 hours of sleep, starting my period that day, feeling really bloated, and running 3 miles the day before. I finished 12th of 125 Females Age 35-39; 138th of 959 Women, and 387th of 1527 Overall Timed Runners.
And I got a Blue Ribbon.
