my first 5K: a personal triumph!

So, I've had quite a busy and exciting weekend. It all started on Friday evening, when Rebecca and I went for dinner at a new Japanese place here called Kyoto. We were seated at a tiny table in a corner. My view was down the hall to the ladies' room, and Rebecca got to look at a wall. :) It also took forever to get our food. But, when we did get our food, it was really good! We had bento boxes with such items as gyoza, shrimp and veggie tempura, chicken terriyaki, rice, salad, miso soup, etc. We also tried some fried tofu with a hot and sweet sauce. It was all pretty good. Our waitress also brought us out some extra free food - edamame and more tempura. We weren't sure if this is something they do normally, or if she did it for us because it took so long to get our food. Either way, we stuffed our faces until we wanted to undo our pants, and we had a great time talking and laughing. Love my Rebecca-friend!

Even though I was still very stiff and sore on Saturday morning, I dragged myself out of bed, slathered myself in sunscreen, and proceeded to the 5K on post. It was warm and also freakishly windy! I was met there by my gym friend, Michaelle, who ended up being my savior. She is much more of a runner than me (I'm virtually a non-runner. I jog once in a blue moon, and have never gone more than a mile), and could have gone faster than me, but she chose to stay with me to be my personal cheerleader. I honestly don't believe I could ever have jogged the whole thing without her encouragement. I never even planned to jog the whole thing - I went into it thinking I'd jog about a mile and then walk for a while and see if I felt like jogging any more. Never in a million years did I think I could jog the entire 5K without stopping or walking, but that's exactly what I did! It damn near killed me, but somehow, I found the strength to keep going, one foot in front of the other, all the way to the end. There were times when I didn't know how I'd do it, but I did! And when Michaelle told me that we had gone over halfway, I figured that I'd never forgive myself if I didn't try my hardest to jog the whole way. Granted, I didn't jog terribly fast, but who cares? We don't know exactly how long it took us, because there was no time announced at the beginning or when we crossed the finish line, but we estimated that it took about 30-35 mins., which would mean I jogged about a 10-12 minute mile. Not too shabby for a non-runner! We were by no means the last to finish - people were finishing way, way after we did. The most amazing thing started to happen as we approached the finish line. This 5K, which had been something fun for me to do, a challenge for me to see how hard I could push myself, suddenly turned into something very momentous and meaningful to me. I actually started crying a little, and I said to Michaelle "Two years ago I was a fatty, and now I'm jogging a whole 5K! I just can't believe this!" I got very emotional, and though I had told Brian and Nick to stay at home, I ended up being really sad that they weren't sitting there to watch me cross the finish line and cheer me on. It also would have been really nice to have a picture taken of me with my number on right after I finished. When I rounded the bend to the final short straightaway before the finish line, I summoned up all my strength and sprinted - and I mean SPRINTED - to the end. I was running so hard that my feet were hitting my butt. I came to a stop and caught my breath, incredulous, while tears ran down my cheeks. And that is the story of my first 5K. I still can't believe I did it.

Tim and Jaimie showed up a little while later for their visit, and though I was bone-tired, we ended up having a very fun afternoon with lots of laughter and silliness. We went on post to shop and so that T and J could ogle cute soldiers :), and then we went out for dinner to Mizeki - another Japanese restaurant! Yes, I ended up eating pretty much the same dinner two nights in a row, with equal amounts of gluttony. I can't even imagine the amount of water I'm retaining right now, what with all the soy sauce I've consumed over the past couple of days. Oh, and in addition to that, we also baked up a 9 x 13 pan of gooey bars (an amazing, decadent dessert bar), the entirety of which we polished off before they left to head back to Springfield. Disgusting, I tell you. (I'm hanging my head in shame.) But, who cares? I jogged a 5K!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today, I slept in a bit and had a very slow, stiff morning. I headed to Walmart for some stuff, and have since been getting little things done around the house. In a little while, I'm finally going to watch the TV I recorded on Thursday night. And that's my weekend...