The first 5K

Happy New Year, Coagulations to William for completing his first 5K EVER!!!!!

What a day for a run?! On the way there it was pouring down rain! What better for a first 5k than to have it raining and cold?  Well it stopped raining before we ever got there. As we were standing in line to pick up our bibs I could see that William was nervous. I told the group of ladies behind us that this was William’s first 5K, they got excited and took a picture of him and said this is going on Facebook! I was thinking this is the exciting part of doing a 5K; surrounding your self with motivated people who are all there to support you. I could tell that this eased William a little, but it was not to last.

The starting gun went off and we took off, a little fast but we were moving. We got to the first hill and William hit the wall. We are only about ½ mile and we are walking and William is starting to complain about his calf muscles hurting. I know he can run 3 miles, but he was struggling mentally. I think it was all the people passing him that he knows he is better than, but we are at a race where people are prepared for this. We struggle along awhile and I can see he is getting frustrated at my persistent pushing.  I was thinking I know he can do better he needs to get out of his head!  When I ask him what he is mad at?  He tells me the fact that he is running, at me and at himself.  I ask him why is he mad at himself? He said “I am mad that I let myself get to this point.” I ask what can you do about it? “Get off the couch!”, he replies. I think it is now hitting home!

We run a little more I am pushing William by yelling “Come on 81!” (his bib number) . There are a few ladies running near us and they look at me and laugh. I tell them that I am here to motivate him on his first 5K. They start cheering him on. One lady yells back to him that she has lost 73 pounds since March. Wow! That blew my mind.  Here he is looking at what could be him in a few months! There also was an older lady just steadily walking by us while all this was going on. She told us she was 64 years old, and she has only been doing 5K’s for 2 years. William was not able to keep up with the older lady so I stayed with her and talked for a minute. I told her that she was William’s “carrot” he was to keep up with her. She said with a snap “I don’t mind being the carrot.” I could do nothing but laugh. I yelled back to William, “Come on man she does not mind being the carrot so get her!”  Well we had to slow down this was to fast for him, he is not ready to run/walk and talk. We walked over the pedestrian bridge and ran it in to the finish.

William sprinted to the finish just over 55 minutes. At the finish line was Shannon his wife (yeah I singed her up to), my wife, the “carrot”, her daughter, and the other group of ladies along the way. They were all there to congratulate William on his accomplishment! It is awesome how perfect strangers are willing to rally for someone they barely know, but see as an inspiration to themselves.  I hope that William knows that is what he is becoming, an inspiration to everyone who will meet him and here his story! And I hope William got a little inspiration from them as well.

William has accomplished his first official goal of running in a 5k.  He has now set a goal of running a 5K a month. Just maybe all support from strangers has motivated him best of all.