Exercise, Hubster style

Yesterday, I ran in another 5K.  Yeah, I know.  But, I did it. 

The Hubster started a week of vacation on Friday, and he decided that he'd run with me.  I laughed, since his form of exercise lately is walking rapidly to the freezer for a Godiva chocolate ice bar.  He bought the treadmill for us, and at one time, he used it and I didn't.  That's changed now.

So, he signed up with me, and we paid our money.  He joked that he hoped I'd slow up and wait for him - I think his exact words were "Don't leave me in the dust."  The weather was cruddy on Saturday; it rained all of Friday afternoon and evening, and severe thunderstorms were on tap for Saturday.  I was upset, because I really wanted to run and I didn't want to lose the money that we paid for the registration. We woke up, and it was dark out, with heavy clouds and thick moist breezes.  The sitter came over, cracking a yawn because he had gotten home from prom at 3 and here it was 7:30.  We drove to the race, got our numbers, and walked around a bit to warm up.

The race began, and damned if the man didn't run better than me.  We ran almost a mile, and then we walked a bit.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  Every.sinlge.time, he was able to run further than me.  Half jokingly, I called out to him, "I hate you!"  There were two women who were doing the run/walk thing with us, and we kept passing each other.  I joked (?) to one of the women that I was going to tie The Hubster's shoes together next time.  I couldn't believe it - here I run and walk almost every day, although this was a rough week, and he never exercises and he was able to not onlly keep up with me, but get ahead.

My stats were emailed to me, and they looked like this:

There were 15 finishers in the Women 35 to 39 age group and 209 finishers in
the race.

Your overall finish place was 184, your age group finish place was 13 and
your gender finish place was 86.  Your time of 40:57.40 gave you a 13:06
pace per mile.

That was, by the way, 2 minutes faster than the first 5K I ran.  And the rain held off until we got on the highway to go home.

When we got into the Jeep to leave, we passed the very last person who was coming in.  Let me back up a second. When I'm running, I always say something to the other women who are running.  "Good job!"  or "You're awesome!"  or something along those lines.  I joke when I pass people and then they pass me.  I know what it's like, and usually the women are a bit heavier, and I feel like making someone feel good.  So, the bike that comes in with the first person goes back and rides with the person in the back, and I spotted them.  It was an extremely heavy woman, probably over 300 pounds.  I had The Hubster pull over and I got out and ran up to her.  She was breathing really hard, and saying things like, "I hate this.  I can't do it.  I want to quit!"  The race officials, the ones marking the route, had come over and were cheering her on.  I ran up to her and patted her on the back.  "You CAN do it.  You ARE doing it!"  (Geez, I'm tearing up just typing this, just like yesterday.)  She looked at me with a look of agony and repeated, "I can't."  We all started clapping for her and I said, "I'm so proud of you!  You did more than 99% of the people in our city, who are just getting up.  Everyone finishes.  Everyone.  And you are one of those people.  You did an amazing job!"  I gave her a quick hug and went back to the Jeep. 

There are 6 (or more) 5k's in the next three months, and I plan to run them.  I don't know if I'll bring The Hubster with me, though.

Comments

[H.A.Page]

I ran for awhile and it did give me energy and I had to do it in the wee hours of the morning because Houston was so dang hot. Now I'm in NYC and find walking to be highly entertaining and beautiful through Central Park. My husband, however, in my running days, took it up, passed me by and ran the marathon.
It does help to be encouraging to others... good for you.
Cheers.

[Shellie]

Congrats on the race!!
It was very awesome of you to cheer the lady on. I know it made her day to receive encouragement from you.

[Hayes]

Carmen, you rock. Screw Frank.

[Shelly]

Thank you for cheering her on. You are a great example!

[chris]

Good for you to encourage someone else. I'm sure it meant more to her than she could ever express.

My husband could probably wake up and go run a marathon tomorrow, though he never exercises. sigh...

[Jenny]

Yay! Carmen, you are awesome. I'm so inspired by you!

[Paige in Utah]

Congratulations to you! That sounds awesome. It makes me want to get off my fat butt and run. Or walk. Or hobble.

Thanks for sharing, and for being you.

[concerned reader]

I am proud of what you did, both finishing and encouraging that lady. Most people wouldn't have done that. The reason for my name is this however...are you sure you should be comfortable with a male sitter? Maybe it shouldn't matter to me or anyone at all, but it just struck me weird and I got a strange feeling. Blow me off if you wish, but I had to ask.

[Toni]

WOO HOO!! Good for you, Carmen. As someone whose running days are sadly over, I love reading about stuff like this. Very inspiring. You should be so proud of yourself, honey! I'm so proud of you!

[Chris]

I could just reach right over there and give you the biggest hug. What a wonderful thing you did for that lady. And yourself. (btw, I WOULD tie my husband's laces. That's just me though...)

[Dot]

You are an inspiration!! I have just started running and actually ran 1/2 mile on Saturday (all at once) and walked the other 1 1/2 mile. Thank you for being so encouraging to the lady in the race!

God Bless You!!!

[Melissa]

Congratulations so much! I have to say I entered a 10k with a friend, we trained and trained and unfortunately I only made it to 5 but I did finish the race and what made it all the better for me was the cheering and the you can do it's from others. You are awesome!

[Stephanie C.]

That is wonderful, Carmen, and you're obviously getting faster, too. You'll have such a nice collection of t-shirts by the end of summer:).

[Sandra]

What a wonderful thing you did encouraging that lady! That's just what she needed to finish the race. :)

[Kelly Gibbons]

I found your blog Carmen! I did't know-duh! Awesome job on the 5k and what an awesome thing to do (for the lady)!

[javamama]

Sniff. Sniff sniff. That was awesome. You're a good egg. I just ran my first 5K. I thought it was going to be awesome and fabulous. It was hard and sucky. But I finished.

I'm about to start the journey of taking off 40 pounds, so I'm off to read through your archives and see what yer doing!

I think I'll do another 5K, but not till this fall when I've gotten a bit more lung capacity. And if my husband outran me after no exercise, I'd had a hard time not kicking him in the junk. But I'd try really hard to be proud instead. :-)