A few days after the OKC Memorial Races, my Marathon Training Class had its last meeting (on Thursday May 1st). We didn’t have a formal speaker, so we simply reflected on the OKC races, discussed what we learned and shared stories of how we did. Not everyone had run in one of the OKC races, but most of us had. Some people even set PRs! Jaime also told us an adorable story. You see, she was one of the people in charge of the Kids Marathon, and as we know kids say the darndest things. One little girl came up to her and asked, with complete seriousness, “Now, when I win, will I be able to break through the tape or will I bounce back?” LOL! How adorable is that? Of course, I’m sure the girl was disappointed to find that the Kids Marathon wouldn’t be timed and there would be no tape to run through. :) Jaime then told us to keep in touch and said it was possibly she might offer an Advanced Marathon Training Class in the fall. This class would involve discussing running topics more in depth, and it would be available for those of us who had taken the regular class and/or people who’ve already completed a marathon.
On this happy note my classes would wrap up for the semester on Friday May 2nd. At this point I still would have finals to take, but the classes would be finished. And freedom from classes means more time to run!!
Thus, on Saturday May 3rd, I participated in my first timed 5K with B, right here in Norman. This was the first annual Health for Friends Historic Norman 5K. There were probably a hundred or so people participating, so it was much smaller than the OKC races and more low-key. The route took us along Main Street, which I drive down all the time, and along many of the beautiful historic neighborhoods where I hadn’t been before. Even as low-budget as it was, they still managed to provide us a water station after 1.5 miles. I didn’t take any, but it was still nice to see it was there. Actually, I probably should have taken some water – very often I get a cramp around my upper left rib cage after a mile of fast walking, and Jaime has told me it might be due to not drinking enough water. She also said it could be due to improper breathing. In other words I need to make sure I expand (not contract) my chest and my stomach when I inhale. I’ve been working on this but it doesn’t make much difference, so maybe water is the key (?). Has anyone else experienced this? Let me know.
Eventually the route brought us back to the railroad tracks, which we ran alongside from mile 2 to mile 3. The headwind at this point was a little fierce, but certainly not as bad as it could have been. Soon the Finish line was in sight and I ran almost the last tenth of a mile. This was really my only “strategy”, if you can call it that. :) I would randomly break into sprints like this, with the goal of ‘Ok, I’ll run past this person’ or ‘I’ll run to that intersection’. I finished in 48:33 (average 15:34/mile pace) with B motivating on the sideline. After announcing the winners in each division, we all got finisher medals – so now I have two race medals in my collection! :)
A week later, on Friday May 9th, my finals would be over and my Spring 2008 semester officially concluded – woohoo! Now I’m free from those obligations and my summer has really kicked off…. I have a lot planned! I will be reading lots of Runner’s World books on running and marathoning. I will be working on improving my cooking skills, so I have more healthy recipes in my repertoire. Most of all, I look forward to starting my training for the Disneyland half-marathon, and as always I’ll keep you all posted.
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