Last Sunday I walked my first 5K, joining Team Canada in the TNT Dynamic Duel Fundraiser for Leukemia research. It's awesome to say that I was part of Team Canada, because it makes me sound like an athlete. But you know me - I have to say it like it is and I have to admit that I didn't feel very athlete-ish...
My initial goal was to walk this sucker in under one hour and when I checked my time after the first 500 metres and it was less than 5 minutes I totally thought I could do it in under 50 minutes. This was my view when I was still feeling very optimistic:
Once I got a little closer to that hill I was feeling just a tad less optimistic about my time-goal...
At the end of the hill we (my son and I) had to turn and there was yet another hill... That was about the time when I abandoned my time-goal and just hoped for survival.
My son was walking with me and kept trying to talk to me. While he was telling me interesting little facts (like "did you know that the world's oldest person, a 122-year-old woman, has an iphone?" and "we are learning about ancient Egypt in school right now and did you know that people were given riddles by the sphinx, which they had to solve to stay alive?") all I could say was "Can't....talk....must....breathe...."
Just before he got ready to dial 911 on his cell phone, it went downhill. Like literally. Which was a good thing.
Anyway, you get the point (in case you don't get the point: I am a whiny whimp, that's the point).
In the end we made it in 52:31 and I'm pretty happy with that. I actually walk that route all the time, but usually with my dog and then it takes about 90 minutes - which is more my pace (I'm totally blaming it on the dog, though).
Go Team Canada!
(BTW - the pictures of the route were not taken during the 5K, but while I was walking my dog. You know, like a reenactment... my brain was so oxygen deprived that I couldn't even think of taking pictures.)