Run, run with her top down, baby, she flies.

I accomplished one of my summer goals this weekend, and it’s so exciting!! My original goal was to run a 5k by the end of the summer. I’m not too athletic, and I’ve never trained for sports or anything in my life, so I thought a 3.1 mile run in three months was fairly reasonable. I started going running at the end of the school year to relieve stress from finals and projects and setting up everything for my internship, but I could only go so far before I felt completely out of breath and my muscles started to hurt. It helped that my friend Teagan would go with me though! She was very encouraging and helped me run our short routes without stopping.

As soon as school ended and I started running at home, it got more difficult to do it by myself. But I ran everyday, even if I had to stop and take a break in the middle of it. I even took my younger brother along with me a few times because he plays soccer, so I figured he could give me some good tips, too.

When I got here to Portland, it was even MORE difficult than at home. Oregon, very unlike Michigan, is FULL of hills and trails and I’m pretty sure it’s at a higher elevation than my hometown, too. I mapped out all of my routes the first day I got here, so I could stay motivated and not fall behind. I’m slowly getting used to all of the hills, but they are definitely my least favorite part of running. :p

So as I’m going through training everyday, I found out that there was an upcoming 5k called the ‘Starlight Run’ during Portland’s HUGE city fair. (When I say huge, I mean it. It is about 5 weeks long, and there’s events every Thursday-Sunday in downtown Portland including their famous Portland Saturday Market, a traveling amusement park, and music concerts at night!) Well, as soon as I saw that there was a 5k, I signed up for it without hesitation. I even got two of my co-workers to come along and run with me!

By the day of the run, I had only ever accomplished running ⅔ of the length of a 5k, so I was a little nervous that it would be hard for me to finish it. The best part about this run though, was that it wasn’t supposed to be a super serious run where you try to get your best time. Everyone was dressed up for the Rock N’ Roll theme and there was a costume contest before we started. It put everyone in such a good mood, and it really helped encourage me to do my best no matter how far I could get or how fast I ran.

By the time it was ready to start, I was warmed up and ready to go. My friend tracked the first mile, which wasn’t too bad, but I was dying and ready to take a break by the end of the second. But I was able to get a lot of motivation from the crowd. The 5k precedes the Starlight Parade that’s full of lit up floats and clowns and normal parade cars, so the community sets up camp early in the day to get good seats. Everyone cheers you on as you run and the atmosphere is just so energetic. The kids line up along the side of the road to get high-fives, too! Seeing their faces is what encouraged me to keep going. :]

All in all, I finished the 5k, without stopping, in under half an hour, which was better than my original goal! I’m really proud of myself for getting this done, but now I don’t know what to do since I finished a goal so early on in the summer! Maybe I should double it and run a 10k by the end of August..