Road to running my first 10K

When I was younger; about 7 or 8 years old, I had participated in a number of school events for track and field. I ran fast, but not fast enough and was a substitute runner for some inter-school events.  The first time I ever won a medal was during school sports day, a very long time ago. I had been on the 4×400 meters relay race. I ran in third as fast as I could and on that day we ended up winning a bronze medal. It wasn’t gold or silver, but it was a medal and one of my first and only. Later when we moved to India, I had completely given up on sports in school but used to participate in some class basketball events during P.E.

Fast forward to about 3 years ago end of 2013, when I decided I should finally do something about my ever growing belly and it seemed a great idea at the time for a New Year resolution to be healthy and fit. I went with a friend of mine to the gym, not actually stepping into the gym in my entire life prior to this day! My friend used to run, and I thought ok maybe I try in the gym, I mean how bad could it be. That first day, as she ran for nearly 45 mins straight on the mill, I had to keep up and ran to take intermittent breaks of walk and jog, all the while trying to keep up the pace.

It was my naivety in thinking it was a good idea without proper stretching and any previous form of exercise. I also decided to join the Krakow Business Run the following year, which was I think in its 3rd year. Terrible mistake, I kept pushing myself in the gym with a pair of shoes that was not fit for running and ended up with a severe knee injury in my right knee. This led to several therapy sessions for a few months to try and help my knee get better. All the therapy and stretching worked; as last year I finally was able to run my first 5k race. Miraculously I managed to finish in about 00:21:29 mins. A very proud moment for me.

Earlier this year, I challenged myself to run a 10K race and thought to myself why not? I signed up for a fun race “Krakowski Bieg Sweitlikow” a fun night 10K race which promised to be full of lights and costumes. Swietlikow in Polish means Fireflies 🙂 So about 3 months ago I signed up and started to train for this race. Lucky for me the weather outside started to get warm after a relatively mild winter and so I ran about 3-5K outside every odd day and about a 45 mins run every Saturday. I kept this up for 2 months and happy to report had no problems with my knee at all.

I have to admit I enjoyed every minute of the race, from start to finish. It was a fun, energetic, colourful and very motivational event for me. From having an injured right knee under a year ago to finally crossing the finish line with my goal of finishing the race in under 1 hour. Official time to cross the finish line 59:53:00 🙂 Goal realized! At the end of the race, we were offered a coupon for a drink of choice. I chose a glass of wine to celebrate my hard work and then went back home happy and proud. Who knows I might run some more 10K’s in the future if it is this much fun and challenging.

Thanks for reading, hope some of my readers would try out running. It is not so bad as your mind thinks it is
xoxo
Doreen