Sea World Pole to Pole 5k fun run. April 20, 2013.
I never thought I would ever be where I am today. 7 months ago I was in a scooter, and just two days ago I completed a 5k. It's an amazing accomplishment. I am so proud and happy with where I am today. Granted I will never be rid of my disabilities but I don't let them ruin my life. This is my experience from the day of my 5K.
I was nervous, scared, excited, worried and overall happy to do it. I didn't know how I would do or what would happen at the 5k. But I was determined to finish Nd not be last!
Spencer had to work that morning but he was able to drop me off. We get to Sea World and parked. He walks me up to the registration tables and waits with me to get my bib number and T-shirt. I had to sign a hard copy of the waiver and went to the table to get my bib. The tables were set up alphabetically. I go to the table for that has the A's through E's I think. I get my bib and I am bib #2. Since they did it alphabetically there was only 1 other person in front of me that had a name before mine in the alphabet. I proceed to get my shirt and we see Vickie and Vern in line to get their bibs. Then we see Mary Jo and Joe waiting to get Joe's bib. Then we all get our shirts. Vickie and Vern let me put my back pack in their car and there I say goodbye to Spencer. And the three of us head in. Now I didn't know what this was going to be like but when we went in it was so awesome. They had booths up for swag. They had characters out to get pictures with. They had a huge billboard to get a picture in front of. And there was the start. I was ready for this! I saw the start line and we waited until it got close to start time. All the runners/walkers got ready at the start line and they did a count down. And it was time!
We got the GO! And EVERYONE starts running. I walked. I told myself slow and steady wins the race. As everyone is zooming past me I see another woman my age walking. I told her it was nice to see at least one other person walking. She said she doesn't run. I told her that everyone that started out running will soon slow down and we will be passing them soon. I heard a mother tell her daughter "Don't worry. Whats nice about your first race is that it is your personal best". That was encouraging to hear for me. It was so nice to walk through the park and see some animals out. As I go on I periodically look at my MapMyFitness app and I am doing the fastest pace I have ever done. It feels great. I don't know why but I got the urge to run/jog. So I started jogging and lasted about 60 seconds. But then I decided I will walk for awhile and jog until I can't anymore, then walk until I get my breath back and jog again. So I did interval walking and jogging. And it worked for me! I would walk about 5 minutes and jog for 30-60 seconds. I did very well. 1/3 of the 5k was in the parking lot. No music (which actually makes me go faster) and it was getting warm. But I walked and jogged back into the park, stopped by the water station (which was placed perfectly coming back from the parking lot) and soon was at mile 2! I'm almost there! I kept telling myself I'm gonna finish, and I'm not gonna be last! There were still some people behind me. Pretty soon I was at mile 3. And I decided to run from mile 3 to the finish line, and I did!
I was determined to finish this race in 50 minutes and as I got closer to the finish I noticed the clock saying 39:47 so I run just a little bit faster! And I cross! Vickie is there taking my picture for me. And I am just full of accomplishment! I feel great. I had my phone out with MapMyFitness up and notice that the course was actually just a little short of 3.1 miles. So I walk past the finish and get it to 3.1 and stop it. On MapMyFitness I hit 3.1 miles in 40 minutes and 27 seconds. A personal best!
They were handing out reusable bags at the finish line with stuff in it. After the race they gave everyone breakfast. Breakfast burritos that were very good. They had coffee, tea, orange juice, bottles of water, and vitamin water that they were handing out. PopChips was also there handing out samples. There were conservation fund tables so we could learn about protecting the animals. A lot of conservation swag. And Smooth 98.1 was there as well. They had animal ambassadors out. And they did an opportunity drawing. They had a lot of nice stuff they were giving away in the drawing. I also got to see my friend Cristina and her son.
After the drawing they thanked everyone and told everyone if they want to see their times they were at the back. So we go to the tables to check. I find me with the estimate of 40 min and they have me down as finishing at 40:05. Which is a 12:55 pace per mile!! Best ever! They had announced that 700 people had signed up for the race. And of that 700 only 531 crossed in time to get on the list of times. I am happy to find out that I ranked #279 out of the 700 registered! That is awesome to me!
After we all had to leave, so they could clean up and open the park, we headed back in to walk some more. There was a triathlon going on that day and they closed a couple roads to make way for the biking part. So the roads wold open at 11:30am. So we all waited inside and walked around until 11:30. So after just finishing a 5k I walked for another 3 hours! I am surprised I didn't collapse. Vern and Vickie were nice enough to drive me home.
The after effects is what hit me hard. It is now two days later and I am still having pain. But I am so happy to have done it. And I am so proud of what I did. I had such encouragement at the run. Nd I look forward to doing the Sea World 5K next year. I do have other 5K's planned. Mom and I will be going for the Girls on the Go 5K next month together. Ad there is at least one a month that I want to do every month this year. But I am so happy I did this one at Sea World as my first one!
I encourage everyone to do one if at all possible. But train, train, train! Because I would have never accomplished what I did without training.
Thanks for reading!
Link to all the pictures from the day: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.587495051261540.1073741832.100000031503377&type=1&l=768888dadd
It is a public album so no need to have FB.
I have posted two pictures. One before the race and one crossing the finish line!
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