Day 64 KO ing My First 5K

Day 64

KO ing My First 5K

Amber, my oldest, told me she was excited to do the Anderson Family Thanksgiving Day 5k, and while chatting with her this evening I learned that she was busy training for it today! She did it! 3.1 miles, a whole 5K...and just think baby how much easier it will be when you have your I-Pod working! Irene had to go to work tonight were she'll easily do a 5K plus on the floor of the largest casino in the area. So that left Courtney and Me. We had planned to go a little earlier, say 5:30, but again schedules didn't work right, but we knew we were doing it tonight regardless of the time or temperature! We bundled up real good, or so we thought, and we headed down to the old walking trail. I looked at this first 5K walk like it was a mini version of the big journey we're on. I knew it wouldn't be easy, and sure enough at the ¾ mile mark we had trouble. From about ½ mile I had noticed my right sock had dropped down below the shoe line causing some rubbing. I tried to ignore it, but at the ¾ mile mark I had to stop, take off the shoe, have Courtney help her big old daddy adjust it, then put back on the shoe. I can handle my own shoes and socks if I have somewhere to sit down, but I'm not at the point of being able to adjust it solo standing up. Courtney was a heel saver! A nasty blister was the last thing I needed, and it was heading there fast. We continued on at a really nice pace, our first mile clocked in under 20 minutes, so we were doing a little better than three miles per hour. The second mile seemed to grow colder, the wind started to pick up a little more, and that's when we realized that maybe we should have bundled up a little better. Courtney's face and legs were becoming numb, and her legs starting cramping. She plowed through the rest of the second mile before I made her get in the vehicle out of the cold. She did an amazing job setting a very nice pace. I was trying to keep pace with her the entire two miles and that really helped me get a better workout. For a moment I thought about stopping too. I really did. The first two miles really zapped me. My heart rate was way up, I was sweating and really cold at the same time, and my heel didn't feel that great. But I told Courtney to wait for me, because I had to beat this. I proclaimed in this blog I would do it, and by golly I was going to get it done tonight. So on I went, my pace may have dropped a little, but I was still trucking right along. My heel was hurting from the droopy sock problem on mile one, but I just kept thinking about how good I would feel when I finished. I wanted to win this 5K! Even though I wasn't competing against anyone but myself. At a little more than 2 and ¾ of a mile I started feeling really confident. I actually tried to start a little jog, but I lasted only about ten or twelve steps before I realized I really wasn't ready for jogging. At that point I could see the vehicle, I was close. When I was even with the vehicle I knew I had only a tenth of a mile left 'till victory. Making the turn back to the vehicle at 3.05 miles was really nice. As I approached the vehicle Courtney jumped out and gave me the biggest hug. I did it! I completed a 5K Walk/Run, uh, minus the running. Courtney and I reminisced about Day 1 when I could barely make it a quarter mile. I just did over twelve of those! I felt like I accomplished something special. Talk about stepping up the workouts, this was stepping it way up! And now I'm pretty confident that come Thanksgiving, I'll be able to get around Boomer Lake without having to have Irene pick me up on the other side when they finish. That's the thing about walking Boomer Lake, it's a 5K just walking around it once. So if you make it half way, you pretty much have to go all the way if you want to get back to your vehicle. Unless you're with someone, then you can have them pick you up after they finish. But I will not have that problem, I did it tonight and I'll do it Thanksgiving!

Tomorrow evening we will be surrounded by thousands of calories worth of barbecue ribs. We're going out with our friends Rachel and Neil Bell. Neil has laid claim to downing nearly 25 ribs at one sitting before, or in caloric terms, over 10,000 calories worth of barbecue pork ribs. Better eat a light lunch Neil, because I'm looking forward to rooting you on to a record 26 ribs! Irene and I will probably go for a smoked chicken type thing, or grilled chicken breast, and Rachel is watching the calories too. It'll be a fun little get together, and I'm not even worried a little bit about those tempting, mouth watering, slow cooked to perfection, dripping with sticky sweet sauce barbecue ribs. I guess I could have the ribs, a couple of small ones, but I really think the better calorie value will be a chicken choice of some kind.

Today was a very busy and very fabulous day! I cruised in at about 70 calories under my allotted 1500, that's OK, it's too late to eat them now, and I did my first ever 5K walk. That may have been the longest I've ever walked in one stretch. I know we did 3 miles before back in 2004 when I lost that 115, but this was 3.1 miles! Wait, I think I remember walking nearly five miles when I was a very young child. Say maybe 7 or 8 years old. But I think I set a record tonight for distance walked as an adult. Now that I've done it, I look forward to doing it again. Great job today Amber, Courtney, Irene, and everybody else that is out there doing it with us! Feels good doesn't it? Good night and...

Good Choices,
Sean