5K Race

I have never imagined, even in my wildest dreams, I would ever join a marathon. Never. But by some weird twist of fate, I found myself running last March 13, 2011 in a 5K race. The race is called the RAT (Run Againts Trafficking) race. It aims to raise awareness on human trafficking and benefit the educational programs of Zonta Club of Makati and Visayan Forum Foundation.

So how did I get into this?

About a month ago, I started including running in my fitness program. My intention was to lose few pounds and get rid of my beer belly. I never liked running. At the gym, I ignore the threadmill. Running for me is boring. But driven by desperation to lose the belly, I succumed to the fact that I need to do cardio excercises to lose weight. And running is the low cost, low impact exercise available. I bought a really nice Nike running shoes just to motivate me to run. And i did, at most twice a week usually for about 15 to 18 mins. After that time, I'd give up as I couldn't push myself further. With the nudging of my friends, I initially thought of joining a 3K race. But then i realized it would be stupid to join 3K if most of the participants are way younger and mostly women. So I joined 5K with a lump stuck in my throat. I was thinking "bahala na!". And what happened during the race? I finished the race with a time of 24 mins and 50 secs (official). I was like, Wow! How did I do that??? I believe the competitive nature in me came out during the race and motivated me not just to finish the race but register a good time (under 30 mins). I hate it when a runner would overtake me. So I really pushed myself hard. I am really quite happy with my result and now looking forward to the next (Nat Geo Run). I'll be training for it and hoping to improve my time. I am aiming to register under 20 mins for the 5K run.