I ran my first 5k post foot surgery yesterday. I had a goal of finishing it within 40 minutes (which seemed like more than enough based on my training). I finished in just under 45 minutes. Needless to say, I was disappointed.
I have a terrible struggle with setting goals as when I don't meet them, I feel like every reason I may have for not getting there is just a silly excuse. I know that I beat myself up more than I need to, but I am always my worst critic.
This weekend was a rough one, to be fair. Saturday, the dog food company I work for, Fromm Family Foods, held it's first annual Pet Fest. It was a roaring success and I was on my feet from 8:30am-7pm. I put in just over 15,000 steps, many more than I normally would the day before a race.
Race day started out pretty well, but as it has been almost three years since I ran a race, I wasn't really sure how to eat. Normally, I get up and run on just my Spark energy drink. Then I come home and eat breakfast. Since I was getting up more than 2 hours before my race, I knew that I needed to eat something. So I had a Spark and a banana. I wanted something simple that wouldn't upset my stomach.
That was a terrible idea. My stomach started grumbling in the car ride down.
My sister had warned my that there would be a few hills. The first hill was in the first half mile of the course. And it kicked my butt. I moved my goal from running the first two miles without stopping, just to making it a mile without stopping. As soon as I hit the first mile, I had to stop and stretch. The calf on my bad foot was already tightening and my quad on my other leg was starting to be uncomfortable.
After stretching out, I would make it about a half mile before having to walk again. I repeated this process for the rest of the race.
The second hill in the course? Yeah, I walked that.
But as soon as I saw the finish line and knew that I had already completely 3 miles, I kicked it into high gear. If there is one thing that I can do pretty well, it's sprint. My kick was impressive and I felt great as I finished the race.
Would I have liked to finish it faster? Yes. But I did finish it. That is what matters.
I am going to keep my goal of finishing a 5k in under 40 minutes. But I will continue to be ok with just finishing. This is how I am going to approach all of my workout goals. I have to remember that I had just had foot surgery 5 months ago. I have made HUGE progress since then. Everything else is just a bonus :)
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