On my post inApril I wrote something about having a dream where I had a 5k and didn’t train. Well part of that dream came true and I lived to tell about it. We were camping in Bandon this spring when I saw an ad for a local 5k…I fretted all week about whether I should, or could, do it. It said something about ‘a challenging course’ along the beach and through Bandon. I don’t know about you, but walking on the sand is a little more than I can handle sometimes, so RUNNING on the sand sounded a little out of my league.Just in case I decided to do it, I went for a test run with Kate, the big poodle. On Tuesday, we made it about a mile, mile and a half. I swallowed a bug part way and spent the rest of the run hacking up bug parts. Really thinking I wasn’t up for this.
Wednesday we made it two miles, no bugs. Kate wasn’t too sure she wanted any part of this. Just so you know. Thursday we made it three miles. Kate wouldn’t make eye contact with me after that. But hey, I’m thinking maybe…
Friday night, still not sure what I was going to do. Went to bed and figured I’d have some sort of sign on Saturday morning. Did I mention the run was on Saturday morning? Well, I finally decided what the heck…no one knows me there and if I had to sit down part way and have the husband come pick me up off the sand, then it would be my little secret. Well, Saturday morning dawned calm and clear. I had no choice. Was powerless.
OMG can I tell you I had the best time ever. I’ll try to make this short, but even thinking back about it, I get all excited all over again.
A small town 5k is a WHOLE lot different than a Portland 5k. Instead of 20,000 of my closest friends, I think there might’ve been 200..including spectators. I was worried at first I was the only old chubby gal, but there were all kinds of people, young, old, skinny, not so skinny, fast, slow…it was so cool.
I took off joggling in a little tiny pack, and most of the pack left me behind. That’s okay by me. I joggled down the boardwalk, along the jetty road and then turned onto the beach. Hey, sand’s not so bad! The view was spectacular, the tide was coming or going or whatever it does that early on a Saturday morning and I got to wave at little kids walking on the beach with their folks. I totally dig waving when I run, takes my mind off whatever body part is swaying at the time.
After we crossed the beach we came upon the STAIRS. These STAIRS were quite possibly the longest set of beach STAIRS I have ever seen. And I discovered that joggling muscles are totally different than STAIR muscles. So by the time I got to the top of the stairs, my joggling muscles were ready to take over again. I really thought that by the top of the stairs I would have to sit, so was surprised when I was still motoring forward.
I have to tell you a story…I was joggling along the beach stretch and WAYYYY ahead of me was a gal, in other words, I was WAYYYYY behind her. And I was pretty steadily WAYYYY behind her. I was totally stoked when I caught up with her at the top of the stairs. I could hear the Chariots of Fire music playing in my head and I was joggling in slow motion, really, was probably joggling in very slow motion. But it was cool and I felt very tough. I had almost as much fun climbing those stairs as I did joggling along the beach. Climbing stairs is a lot like running for me…I’m very glad when both are over.
Anyway, we finished the run together; she was my new best friend that day. As we huffed and puffed along the bluff, you could see forever. I’m sure this is the prettiest 5k course in the state. As we came into town, there was a cop car on the corner. When we slowly joggled by, he was very kind and told us that we were going so slow that we didn’t even register on his radar. Dude. I’m old.I can’t tell you how much fun it was. Okay, I could but it would take a lot more typing and I don’t think anyone wants to read all of those words. But feel free to drop me a line and I’ll tell you all about it. Really I will.
BUT WAIT, there’s more. I got a ribbon. Seriously. And I have the picture to prove it. I got 3rd in my age group. YES! Okay, there were probably only 4 in my age group, but you can’t take my ribbon away from me for that.
So the moral of this story is: Just do it. Get out of bed on Saturday morning and do something you’ve never done before. Make new friends. Get your wiggle on.
