Today was my first ever 5K race.
I started training at the beginning of August for this run, and even though I've run the same distance (or more) several times, today felt big.
My goal was to run the whole race, without stopping to walk even once.
As I lined up at the start line, I looked around at this gigantic crowd wearing white t-shirts, tu-tus, and feather boas. Some had sinewy such runner's legs, and some looked... more like me. I felt just like I do before I go down a big waterslide... only this one was 3.3 miles long. And then the doubts, oh, the doubts! I hadn't trained enough for hills. I didn't run enough this week. It was bitterly cold, so my knees hurt, even with braces on. I felt a bit like an imposter: a walker, pretending to be a runner.
We counted down, and we went.
Down, down, down a hill. Then up, oh, up and up and up. It felt brutal.
But the kilometers came and went. I earned each color, all the way to the balloons at the Finish Line.
And I didn't walk once.
