Accomplishment

My first 5K went pretty well. My friend Andy decided to run at the last minute, so I met him and his girlfriend, Ginger, and her dog, Nugget, at the Start. It was nice to have someone else I knew in the race - he pulled away pretty quickly in the beginning, but I could see him up ahead on the long straightaway parts of the course, so that was nice.



The weather was pretty miserable; Cold and windy, with pretty strong gusts. Grant Park is really green and has tons of old trees, so there was a lot of debris on the course. They had cleared some fallen limbs, but it was still a little messy in spots. I wore shorts, but kept my long-sleeve shirt on, and ran comfortably in that. It would have been nice to have gloves, and I wish I had warmed up more, because the race went right into a big hill at the beginning and my calves are paying this morning.

Grant Park is HILLY. There was a pretty short, but really steep hill right at the beginning and at about mile 2, there was a straightaway on Cherokee Ave., which was LONG, you could see forever, and it was up and down and up and down, like waves of hills. Then, at the end, there was another long gradual hill, which kind of sucked.

My time was only 35:06, but I think it would have been better without hills, and if I felt warmer. Right at the start, I was cut off by a runaway woman and her dog, so that slowed me down. I also slowed to stretch my calves, which felt really tight, early in the run, and I also actually stopped for a few seconds to check on another runner. She was running right behind me and to my left, and was closer to the cones they set out to mark the course. Some asshole in an SUV actually swerved into the course, and hit the cone closest to her, which was kind of scary. Then, myself and a few other runners slowed down to talk to the nearest policeman we saw, to tell him what had happened. He forced the guy to pull over, so that was nice. I also think that I will do better in the future without the fear of the unknown.

I didn't come in last, so that is good, and in fact, I passed a number of people, and there is quite a thrill in that, although as slow as I was, i also felt a little bad, because the people I was passing were more like me - probably new to the whole running thing, and who wants to be passed? Quite a few of the people running with dogs passed me, too, though. (Runners went in the first flight, then runners with dogs, then the walkers and dog-walkers.)

My favorite part was getting to the end, and coming through the finish, and seeing Todd and the kids waiting, and Rollie running up to me to give me a high five. He looked really happy, and in my imagination, proud of his Mom.



Afterwards, we walked around to see the booths and there were TONS of pets in costumes, which is always entertaining. They had a jumpy castle, so Rollie jumped for a while, then we got a lollipop for him and walked back to the car. It was funny, because he was right at dog eye level, so every dog in the park stole a lick of his lollipop.



All in all, i felt really good and the sense of accomplishment in setting and meeting a goal is a nice feeling. It is also nice that so many of my friends and family were so supportive. I am lucky to have such great people around me.

Okay, enough with this sappy endorphin shit.