5K Recap

As I've mentioned in previous posts, one of my goals before turning 22 is to run a half marathon. In order to keep myself motivated until the end of April, I started signing up for 5k's to have goals to work towards. One of the 5K's I originally signed up for in August, and my second 5k of 2017 so far, was last night. Every year for the past few years, Dollywood, our local theme park, has held a race that goes through the park so you can look at all the Christmas lights while you run! Being the huge Christmas fan that I am, I of course signed up to do it. What I wasn't thinking about when I signed up in 90 degree weather in August was the time and the temperature. The race didn't start until 11:17pm, which, if you know me, is way past my bedtime. Also, it was a cool 30 degrees last night by the time the race kicked off. I'm going to be totally honest, when the race started I couldn't feel my hands, but about a mile in I started to warm up and get in the groove and it was really fun!

Dollywood is super hilly, so my goal was to run all of the flat parts, and walk the hills. Once I was actually running the race, I did way better than I thought I would and ended up running the entire thing! I know to most people, this is not a big accomplishment, I mean, it's just 3.1 miles...but I was so proud of myself for not only accomplishing my goal, but going above it as well! Running is not something that has ever come naturally to me, so finishing this race and actually enjoying it was a huge accomplishment for me. Running this race has actually given me the motivation to keep going and work even harder towards my half marathon goal this April. I'll keep you all updated on my running progress, and I'm running another race on Thanksgiving morning in Downtown Knoxville, so stay tuned. Ian's running with me, so that'll be interesting to say the least!