Today’s post was submitted by Birdie G.
When I first joined the “Run a 5K in 2012” Facebook page earlier this year, I thought “What in the world?”. I mean, I’d never run in my life. Why would I start now?
A co-worker of mine asked if I wanted to run the Color Run in San Francisco later in the summer and I decided that might be fun. But that would mean I actually had to be ready to run a 5K. A 5K? Seriously? That seemed like an awful long way. I highly doubted I’d ever be able to accomplish that.
So I started to run. Not too far at first. But each time it became easier. At that point, I didn’t even know how many miles a 5K was. After one of my runs, I came home and checked it out on an online conversion chart and was shocked to find that I’d just run a 5K. Woohoo! I didn’t even realize that the loop I was running through my neighborhood was 3.25 miles. Perfect!
“Run a 5K in 2012” continued to post encouraging messages, not only to me, but to their other members as well. On days where I might not have felt quite like running, I’d see a post that would encourage me to get up off my butt and run. Of course, after my run I’d always feel so much better. Then I was introduced to the Anywhere5K page on FB. This was really awesome for me. Now I could “officially” log every time I ran. It has since encouraged me to run more regularly and makes me want to do better.
“So I started to run. Not too far at first. But each time it became easier.”
I ran my first 5K on April 15 and it felt AWESOME! Then I ran the Star 6 Memorial 5K and got a PR. The following week I participated in the Wounded Veteran Run 5K. I’m signed up for 3 more this year and am planning to add a few more to my calendar.
Now I look forward to posting my results and seeing the feedback. It makes me want to do better. I might not be anywhere close to running anything other than a 5K, but I love knowing that I have an entire support team in “RA5Kin2012” and “Anywhere5K-land”and always look forward to the responses.
Got thoughts on Birdie’s story? Share ‘em below, post ‘em on Facebook, Tweet us @anywhere5k, or send us an e-mail at a5k@anywhere5k.com.
