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Health & Fitness

I'm Running My First 5K In Seven Days

First 5K race

As most of my regular readers know, I have been struggling to become an avid runner for a few months now. Four months to be exact. It's been a long journey to get to this point in my training, but it has been worth it. I feel healthier and stronger. I don't like to put a lot of emphasis on weight loss because it is not always the most accurate indication of improved health, but over the last four months I have dropped about 12 pounds. During this time, I have also started eating healthier, so I'm sure that has something to do with it too, but overall I am pleased with the results!

Running has not come easily for me. Mostly because I've always been really slow. On my baseball team in high school, my nickname was "Sundial" because they say I was so slow that you could time me with a sundial. That's pretty slow. I'm competitive by nature, so racing anybody was out of the question. I focused more on team sports like baseball, football and hockey where competition was still fierce, but I didn't necessarily have to be the fastest guy on the team.

It's really taken me a long time to get over that and now I realize that it doesn't matter how fast I am, it matters how healthy I am. I think my speed has improved over time, but I will never be the guy that finishes first in a 5K and I'm ok with that. I’ve been running 3 times a week on average and the furthest I’ve run is about 2.5 miles. The 5K is 3.1 miles, so I’m almost there. My wife, Rachel, says that the excitement and adrenaline will take me the rest of the way. I feel like I’ve worked hard to get to this point and I’m really excited about the race!

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The race I'm running is the Thanksgiving Day Walnut Creek Sports and Fitness Turkey Trot and I can't wait! If anyone else out there is also running/ walking it, send me a message or post in the comments... I would love to see who else is taking part!

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