One More Shot at Running


Somewhere around the middle of August 2008, after I had lost 15 or 20 pounds it occurred to me one day that maybe I ought to give running another try. I ran just a little bit at first, but this time around I could tell I was lighter and everything felt better. In just a few days I made more progress than I had back in March and I actually felt good for the first time in years.
I started thinking about that 5k I wanted to run with my daughter next year and thought that would be something great to train for. Somewhere I heard about a 5k race coming up in Hildebran, North Carolina, which is where my mother lived when she was young. The race was just a few weeks away (September 13th) and I didn’t know if I’d be ready for it but I was excited about the prospects of running it if I could.
For the next two weeks I worked on running the 5k distance (3.1 miles). My best time in March had been about 39 minutes, but just a couple days before the Hildebran 5k race I timed myself at about 29 minutes — 10 minutes faster than before!
Race day came and I was excited about it since I had never been in a race before. It was a perfect start for me. The race was tiny, with only 30 runners, but there was this small-town friendly atmosphere that I was glad to be a part of. When it was over I had finished 11th overall with a time of 27:56 and I was hooked on running.

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