5 K

If you know me well enough, you probably would put a question mark after my name when I say 5K! As one would have it, Ralph and I have taken up a sport that is the farthest from what anybody we know would have thought we would ever do.  But, run, we have!  We ran our first ever 5K at the Melbourne Music Marathon in Downtown Melbourne this past February.  It was equally exhilarating as it was physically draining.  We had about two weeks to train - well, it was more like walk/run just enough to have endurance to cross the finish line!  I was both excited and scared on race day, maybe more scared than excited, really.  Surprisingly, I not only finished the race but actually finished in a little over 40 minutes!

My next run was the Melbourne Strawberry Festival a couple of weeks later . This was actually how I celebrated my birthday!  Ralph didn't run with me today, so I went with a little apprehension about my will to finish.  You see, Ralph was my cheerleader and the one who kept pace with me so I would keep running till the finish at the first 5K.  Thankfully, I had several friends who celebrated my birthday and ran with me.  Not only did I finish the race, I actually improved on my time by about 2 minutes.  The ultimate prize was a super delicious strawberry pancake breakfast prepared festival volunteers! 

On March 31, Ralph, Megan, and I ran the Game Day 5K at the Viera Stadium.  The best part of the run was coming into the stadium behind center field and running to the plate to finish the race!  My goal coming into the race was to improve on my last run's time.  However, it wasn't meant to be this time.  For the first time since I started running, I had side stitches.  It came on after I drank water at the water stop and then running on a down slope.  It cut my time for the race because I had to walk for about a mile of the 3.1 mi!  Nevertheless, it was still a fun run especially that Megan ran with us.

Happy smiles after the run!

To end our season of running, Ralph and I ran at the Melbourne Art Festival 5K in Downtown Melbourne at the end of April.  There were several hundred runners who ran that day and the food at the end of the run was awesome!  We even had mango smoothies!  The course was a beast!  We ran up and back of the Melbourne Causeway -twice!  I tell you, I was cursing as I was running on the second uphill run on the back stretch!  I have never trained for uphill running and boy did I wish I did. I thought I would lose a lot of time today yet I actually improved from the last time I ran at a similar (minus the second run up the Causeway) course in February.  I finished at 39:22 which was about a minute under my first run here! 

I have no plans of running again until the fall.  It is just so hot out there.  We still do run along Lake Washington Rd. every now and again just so we would be prepared when the running season (cooler weather) starts up again.

Running is a sport that was the farthest from our minds to get started.  In fact, I have always wondered how runners can just keep on running for miles!  After getting started with it, now I understand how and why runners do it.  It is grueling, don't get me wrong, but the endorphins that rushes in after the run is so great that it energizes you.  After the 3rd race, I actually felt more active after the run!  I don't know how long Ralph and I can keep running since we are both up there in age and the knees do get a beating, but for as long as they don't totally give in, we will keep running!  Why don't you come and join us in one of these runs sometime?

Future 5K runs that we are considering on running this year:

Turtle Krawl 5K Run/Walk - Indialantic, September 15
Ghostly Geckos 5 K - Eau Gallie Civic Center, October 20
Pumpkins in the Park 5K - Cocoa Village, October 26
Ascension Eagle Pride 5k/1K - TBD, November 10
Disney Family Fun Run 5K - January 11, 2013

Bucket List Runs

Disney Princess Half Marathon - February 24, 2013