T minus 22 hours and counting

This time tomorrow I'll be done with my 5k!!

Yall are probably getting sick of hearing about it, but it really is a big deal for me. A friend and I started on the Couch to 5K plan about 6 weeks ago. We decided that our first order of business was to find a 5K to run. Our thinking was that if we already had our registration in for the race, we'd be more motivated to actually go through with it.

We picked a race that was 6 weeks away, so we had to cut the first couple weeks off of the training schedule. The first week we did the following:

Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then do two repetitions of the following:

Jog 200 yards (or 90 seconds)
Walk 200 yards (or 90 seconds)
Jog 400 yards (or 3 minutes)
Walk 400 yards (or three minutes)

It was hard to push myself for those 3 minutes. I never dreamed that the plan would work as well as it did, and in just 6 weeks I'd be running 30 minutes more easily that I ran that first 3 minute segment.

Week 5 (my week three) I remember telling my mother I'd never be able to run like the program required that week:

Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:
Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes)
Walk 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes)

I just didn't think that I could make it for 8 minutes without stopping.

Now I can run 40 minutes without stopping. It was a jog through my neighborhood, so I'm really not sure how far it was, but since I average a 10.5-11.5 minute mile I know it was well over my 5K distance.

Thank you guys for all your support. And I hope my bloggy friends who are real runners aren't too disappointed in me if my time tomorrow isn't great. In my training I have said finishing is more important than how fast I finish.

Improving my time for a solid 10 minute mile is my goal for my next 5K. For now, I'm just going to enjoy reaching my first running goal.