Tag Archives: 5K

The Sorority Nobody Wants To Belong To (or Getting Support From Strangers)

I wanted to share another story from the weSPARK 5K this past Sunday.

After the 5K was over, I spent some time at the expo by the finish line. I was having some serious shin splints (I think it was due to the crazy hill) and I wanted to stretch for a bit before I sat in my car to drive home.

I decided to watch the medals being given out to the winners of the 5K and 10K and the top 3 finishers in each age group. They didn’t announce the times for the winners, but I know that they finished extremely quickly.

As I was watching, the woman who got 2nd place in her age group approached me and asked me if I would take a photo of her and her friend. Of course I said yes. The friend of the 2nd place winner (sadly, I never got either of their names) had never done a 5K before this race, so they were both celebrating.

I congratulated them both and then noticed the hats that they both were wearing which said that they were breast cancer survivors. I mentioned to them that my mom is going through treatment for breast cancer, and it was like instantaneously we were friends.

They both asked me what type of cancer and what stage it is. They wanted to know what treatments she’s had already and what treatments she has coming up. And they wanted to know how she was doing. I shared her information with them and they both shared their stories with me.

While I’ve noticed that since I’ve shared my mom’s story with others that people have been sharing their stories with me. There are friends that I never knew had family members with breast cancer who have told me how well their family members have been doing. I know this might sound horrible, but it’s almost like now I’m a member of a secret club or sorority. As soon as someone who has gone through this learns what my family is going through, they take me under their wing.

It’s kind of nice because this is a big unknown for my family and I appreciate getting advice and hearing stories of how well people are doing after cancer.

I know that sometimes it seems like everything is about breast cancer and not about other cancers (and I’ve read plenty of stories about pink items not going to support breast cancer charities). But I appreciate that so many people are willing to share their stories with me and giving me and my family support.

And to the ladies that I spoke to on Sunday, I’m sorry that I didn’t get your names and properly introduce myself. But thank you for sharing your stories with me and for wishing my mom the best.

5K #8 (or I Conquered The Big Hill)

This past Sunday was 5K #8, the weSPARK 5K at Universal Studios. This was my 3rd year doing this race, so I felt pretty prepared for it. This was also the end of my crazy 2 weeks doing 3 5Ks.

On Saturday after my work shift, I drove out to the valley to pick up my race number.

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I noticed while I was picking up my number that the race course was different from the past 2 years. This year, I wouldn’t get to walk past Bates Motel/House (where I worked at Halloween Horror Nights for 3 years). There was also some changes to the giant hill. The start/finish in the past were right next to the hill, so you went down it at the start of the race and up it at the very end. This year, the hill was toward the end of the course. You went up it and immediately down it toward the finish line. Also, in the past there was a flat street that you walked on in the middle of the uphill, this year it was during the downhill.

I was a little annoyed by the course changes, but since I knew this course had the hill, I wasn’t planning on worrying about my time so much this race. I got my PR a week prior and this time all I wanted to focus on was taking one break on the uphill (the last year I took 2 breaks).

The morning of the race was very cold, but bright and sunny.

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I knew it would warm up quickly so I wasn’t wearing a sweatshirt or long-sleeved shirt. Before I knew it, the different groups were getting organized by the starting line. I found the area for 5K walkers and got a quick before picture in.

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The race this year started by going next to the LA River. It isn’t very pretty, but it’s relatively flat. Next we went past Amblin/Dreamworks. There were security guards yelling at everyone that there were no pictures allowed, so I couldn’t get a picture of the E.T. crossing sign like last year.

Next, we headed to the backlot sets. We went past the courthouse from “Back To The Future” and there was one of the DeLorean out there for a photo-op. There was a huge line, so I took a photo while walking past it.

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We did more walking around the backlot and sound stages (I was focused on walking and didn’t take any pictures for this part). And before I knew it, the giant hill was approaching.

It starts out like this.

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You go around a corner and think you are getting close and then there are about 4 sections that look like this.

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It was a much longer hill than the past years (due to not walking through the Bates Motel/House section). We also walked up to the top of the hill instead of stopping toward the top where the finish line used to be. My hips were killing me and I was pretty out of breath, but I kept going. And before I knew it, I saw where everyone was turning around. I seriously appreciated the cheering section at the top of the hill by the water station. I turned around to go back down the hill without ever taking a break!

On the way back down, I noticed a golf cart heading by me. Lea Thompson, who was the celebrity who started the race, was in the back of the cart and waved right at me. Of course I took the opportunity for a picture while I walked behind her.

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I’m kind of curious to see how the official race that was taken at this moment will look.

We walked through the little Europe section and I knew I had to be close to the finish line. I looked at my watch at realized that I was going to finish either right at or right under an hour. That’s significantly faster than I though I could do with the hill.

Finally, I made it to the end! My watch said 59:37, but I know that I started it a little early and stopped it a little late. So I went over to where the printed official race results were posted (which, by the way, I love that this is being done at the race now).

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59:27! Another 5K in under an hour! It’s only about a minute slower than the Hard Rock Cafe 5K and that one was on a very flat course!

I got a quick victory photo with my medal.

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I’m so happy that I got 5K #8 done and with an amazing time! My next (and probably last) 5K for the year isn’t for a few weeks, so I have time to recover and hopefully get a bit faster. But for now, here’s to #8!

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By the way, there’s still some time to help me reach my fundraising goal for this race! Donations are being accepted though the end of this month!

Acting Like A Duck (or Reminding Myself That Positivity Is Important)

I know I’ve had a pretty bad attitude for the past week. A lot of that has to do with being sick. I’m a big baby when I get sick like that and I definitely get into a funk. I’m almost better now, but I’m still taking some decongestants at nighttime so I can get as much sleep as possible (I’m waking up in the middle of the night out of breath because I close my mouth and try to breathe through my nose).

But this week, I’m trying to get back into the positive mindset that I want to be in. Even though my work situation is still pretty bad, I’m going to keep my head down and ignore the names my co-worker calls me throughout the day. My boss has said that the next time he hears her call me a name she’ll be fired. But my co-worker now calls me names quietly so he doesn’t hear her. And yes, I’ve thought about running a tape recorder the entire shift hoping to catch her, but when I’ve tried that in the past it didn’t pick it up.

New job prospects keep coming my way. I’ve now done 3 phone interviews for 3 different jobs. 1 job has had me do a writing test and I’m still waiting to hear if I made it to the next step. Another job has also had me do a writing test and I’ve made it to the next round, but they don’t know exactly when they will be getting to that. And I’m taking time every day to apply for more jobs so that in the near future, I can be working somewhere where I am respected and not verbally harassed during my shift.

And while I’m still dealing with a little guilt about not being near my mom while she goes through her chemo treatments, I can’t do anything about that either, so I need to get past that feeling. I talk to my mom pretty much every day, so I’m being there as much as I can. And I will see my dad this upcoming weekend so I can be supportive for him too.

And finally, the thing that really turned around my bad mood into a good mood was the 5K that I did yesterday. I will do a full recap tomorrow, but I’m beyond excited that even though the race had the killer hill, I did another 5K in under an hour!

So while sometimes it seems like everything is keeping me down, if I stay down and work hard, all that negative stuff just runs off my back and the positive stuff stays with me!

2 Out Of 3 Done (or I’m Surprised I’ve Done Well So Far)

Back when I signed up for 5K #6, #7, and #8 I had no idea how close together they were scheduled. I wasn’t really paying attention to the dates. But once I realized that all 3 5Ks would be within 2 weeks, I started to freak out a little.

I’ve never done so many races in a row. And this grouping included 2 races within the same week.

Now, I do walk around my neighborhood and get close to 3 miles when I walk, but there’s something different about a race. You are all hyped up and push yourself.

And I was scared that I would push myself too far and wouldn’t be able to do all 3 races.

Well, besides this killer cold I have right now, I’m feeling pretty awesome! I thought I’d be sore, but I’m making sure I take a pain pill before the 5K so I don’t hurt too much afterwards.

I’m not sure how I’m going to feel after Sunday, but what I do know is that if I feel horrible afterwards, it’s more likely due to my cold and not from the 5K. If I can do 2 races in 1 week, I can do this next one which is just over a week after the last.

I don’t think that I’m going to be making weekly 5Ks a regular occurrence. First of all, they are a bit expensive. Each race is about $30 and that adds up. Also, there aren’t that many races that I want to do. I’ve been on the lookout for 1 more race to add this year (so I can do 10 in 2013), but honestly, all the races I can do don’t seem interesting to me (or are on crazy hills). Also, with some of these 5Ks, I’m missing days at work. While my boss doesn’t mind, I’m basically losing money by doing them. This might change when I find a new job, but for now I have to work around the schedule I have now.

I have signed up for 2 races for 2014 so far, and it turns out that they are within a week of each other. So I know I’ll have another back to back race adventure in the spring, but I’m going to try to be a bit more mindful of race dates in the future.

Wish me luck with 5K #8 please! It is the one with the crazy hill and I’m still not able to breathe through my nose yet. I promise to recap the race next week!

5K #7 (or I Was Prepared For The Worst And Got The Best)

This past Saturday was 5K #7, the first annual Hard Rock Cafe Hollywood 5K.

But before I talk about the 5K, I want to come clean about something on here. I’ve been posting about 5Ks for a while now, but I’ve never discussed my times on here. I’ve only mentioned if I got a better time than I did previously. That’s because I’ve been embarrassed about how long it takes me to do a 5K. I have lots of friends who do 5Ks and they talk about how they want to get under 30 minutes or 25 minutes.

Well, I’ve been dreaming about getting a 5K under 1 hour. I haven’t had a 5K under an hour in a very long time (possibly 4 or 5 years). Most of my 5Ks this year have been around 1:01 or 1:02, so I’ve been close (5K #6 was at 1:03:15 with all the hills).

Now that I’ve come clean about my race times, back to my race recap!

I had signed up for this race a while ago because it sounded fun and had almost of the same race course as the Hollywood Half 5K (which I really enjoyed). But the week before the race, I noticed in an email that they had sent to me that there was a 18 minute mile pace requirement! Based on my past 5Ks, I’m closer to a 20.5 minute or 21 minute mile. I’ve seen the sweeper vans pick people up from the course on other races, but it’s never happened to me before. But now I was terrified that I was going to be disqualified due to my slow time at this race. I tried to forget about it, but I was seriously having nightmares about it.

On Friday after work, I went down to Hollywood and Highland to pick up my race number and shirt from the Hard Rock Cafe. I had a chance to talk to one of the race organizers, and she reassured me that they would not have a sweeper van coming to pick up slow racers. I didn’t have to worry about the 18 minute mile pace time. As long as I could finish within 2 hours I was ok.

I was much happier after hearing that and was starting to get excited again for the race.

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The race had a 7am start time, plus I needed to give myself enough time to drive over and park, so I was planning on getting up pretty early (at least for me). I was terrified that I was going to oversleep, so my alarm looked like this.

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Fortunately, when the 5:00am alarm went off, I jumped out of bed. I was still a bit nervous for the race, but I kept reminding myself that I didn’t have to worry about pace time.

I drove to Hollywood and Highland again for the race while it was still very dark out. But many of the buildings on Hollywood Blvd. were lit up so that was pretty cool.

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I got a pre-race photo (I look so red because I am illuminated from the Hard Rock Cafe sign).

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And before I knew it, we were lining up at the start line to start the race. Just before the start gun went off, the sun started to come up.

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It was actually really nice! A majority of the racers were runners, so pretty much everyone was either in front of me or passed me as some point. Since the race was an out and back one, I watched people as they flew past me headed toward the finish line (the guy who got 1st in this race did it in under 15 minutes).

I focused on keeping a steady pace and not stressing about my time. I was so focused that I actually missed seeing the 1 mile marker! I like to check my time around then just to get an idea of my pace. But when I saw the turn around point, I checked my time. And shockingly, I was on pace to be at just under an hour!

I didn’t want to get too excited, but I focused on maintaining the pace that I had done the first half with. I just paid attention to my music and kept putting one foot in front of the other.

All of the sudden, I thought I saw the finish line coming up ahead of me. I checked my watch out of curiosity, and I was still on pace to be under an hour! Somehow, I sped up in the last part (maybe because of the excitement), and I crossed the finish line. The official clock was somewhere in the range of 59 minutes, so I knew I had done it in under an hour for sure. My watch said 58:34, but I wanted to seem my official time.

First, I had to get my super awesome medal.

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Best medal I’ve ever gotten!

Finally, I headed over to the board with all the official times on it. And when I found my name, I knew that my time was amazing!

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I did this 5K in 58:32! That’s almost 5 minutes faster than the 5K I had done 6 days earlier!

I’m still in shock that I got my 5K under an hour! I have another 5K this upcoming Sunday, but since it’s the weSPARK walk with the crazy hill, I’m not too focused on what my time will be (I’m still hoping to get closer to my fundraising goal if any of you can donate a dollar or two).

I was so prepared to be disqualified for this race and it ended up being the best race I’ve done in a very long time! I’m so happy that this was a positive experience and I plan on doing this race again next year!

5K #7 is done!

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LA Cancer Challenge 5K (or The Foggiest 5K I’ve Ever Done)

This past Sunday was the LA Cancer Challenge 5K. It was 5K #6 for me this year.

This was one of the random 5Ks I signed up for so I could do as many 5Ks as I could this year. I didn’t pick it for any particular reason. This one happened to benefit pancreatic cancer research.

On Saturday after my half shift at work, I headed over to Westwood to the VA (where the 5K was held) so I could pick up my number and t-shirt. I got a bit of a preview of where I’d be walking, and I realized that it was pretty hilly. After doing a little investigating of what I thought the course would be, I parked my car, went to the tents, and got my number.

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On Saturday night, as I wrote yesterday, I stayed home so I could get a good night sleep before the 5K.

On Sunday morning, I took a pain pill before leaving the house. I wanted to try to prevent as much pain from the hills as I could (it worked pretty well). I drove back to Westwood only to see that it was insanely foggy!

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That picture was taken during one of the clearer moments before the 5K started.

While I waited for the start, I took a before picture.

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You can see the fog getting worse! While waiting, my hair got very damp from all the mist. But if I had to choose from it being too cold or too hot during a 5K, I’d choose too cold any day (I just wish I remembered to bring my sweatshirt that day!).

This was considered a Halloween race and there was a costume contest after the 5K was over. I didn’t want to race in a costume, so I just wore my race shirt that I got when I picked up my number. But there were some pretty amazing costumes that day. This might be my favorite group.

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The mom is a banana, the dad is a gorilla, and the baby in the carrier is a little monkey. I also saw lots of Disney characters and several groups of Minions from “Despicable Me”.

The 5K went ok. The hills seemed endless and I heard many other people saying the same thing or groaning when they saw the uphill ahead. I realized that I was not going to have an amazing time so I just focused on finishing.

I finished this race about 90 seconds slower than my last 5K. But considering all the hills, I’m pretty happy about that.

Of course I had to take an after picture celebrating my 6th 5K!

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My next 5K is on Saturday. I’m getting a little nervous about it. I’ve never done 2 competitive 5Ks in the same week. And I didn’t know when I signed up for the next one that it has a time limit. And typically, I’m about 10 minutes slower than that time limit. The only thing I can hope for is that either they are very lenient on that time limit or that there is someone who starts the race about 10 minutes after me (they start the time limit after the last person starts the race).

I know that I can’t get 10 minutes faster in a couple of days so there isn’t much I can do about it. I just hope that my 5K on Saturday isn’t the first one where I get picked up by the sweeper van and am not allowed to finish.

There’s no point worrying since it is what is it. For now, I’m celebrating finishing 5K #6!

Acting Like A Grownup (or Missing Out On Fun)

I love Halloween. Besides my birthday, it’s probably my favorite holiday of the year. I’m not sure why I love it so much, but I do. And I have no idea if I loved Halloween as much as a kid as I do now. If my mom is reading today, maybe she’ll let me know.

There is one Halloween party that I go to pretty much every single year since I moved to LA. It’s the party that Marie and Chris throw. They go all out with their costumes and really are amazing party hosts. I try to do great costumes every year, but I seem to never be able to compete with how amazing all my friends’ costumes are. But I think that I’ve had some cute costumes the past few years.

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Little Red Riding Hood (with wolf head in the basket)

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Swine Flu (this was a last-minute costume)

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Where’s Waldo?

This is one of the few parties that I look forward to all year-long. The only years I’ve missed it in the past were the couple of years I worked at Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios and worked until 3am. So of course, I’ve been trying to plan what my costume would be for this year. I had it down to a couple of options (I was leaning toward using my “Let’s Make A Deal” pig in a blanket one again) but I knew it was going to be something simple because I had a 5K early the next morning.

On Friday, I was feeling a bit off. I overslept and barely made it to my 9am work shift (I’m lucky that I live close to work). I just figured it was my body getting adjusted to work again. And on Saturday, I was starting to have the sniffles.

I wanted to go out, but I couldn’t risk getting sick. Not only did I have the 5K on Sunday, I needed to work because I’m missing so many days in the next month.

So I made the adult choice: I missed the Halloween party. It wasn’t the fun choice, but I know that it was the right one. I’m sad, but I’ve been enjoying looking at the photos that everyone from the party has been posting on Facebook.

I still have Halloween to dress up (and I’ll be going to a happy hour after work so I might do some sort of costume). And of course, now I’ve got a year to plan the best costume ever for next year!

Pushing Myself (or This Will Make Me Feel Better If I Only Get 9 5Ks Done In 2013)

I’m really pushing to try to do 10 5Ks in 2013. I’ve done 5 so far, and I’ve signed up for 4 more.

In October, I’ll be doing the LA Cancer Challenge 5K. This is a Halloween themed race and will be my first time doing this one.

I’ve got 2 races in November. First will be the Hard Rock 5K. This is going to have a similar course to what I did for the Hollywood Half 5K, so I’m not too nervous about it. After that it’s the weSPARK 5K at Universal Studios. I’m super excited for this race since it will be the 3rd year in a row for me. Although I can’t say that I’m looking forward to the giant hill.

And in December I have the Santa Monica-Venice Christmas 5K. This one was recommended to me by a couple of friends and I might have a friend doing this one with me. I’m already thinking of a cute outfit to wear for this one (I’m thinking red tutu and red and white striped socks perhaps).

I don’t know if I’ll find a 10th to do. I don’t have too many other weekends available when I’m not doing something else.

And I realized that my 3 races in October and November are only 14 days apart! I’m doing one on Sunday 10/27. Then 6 days later I have another one on Saturday 11/2. And just over a week later, I have my 3rd on Sunday 11/10! That’s going to be crazy! I’ve never done so many races so close together!

If I don’t make it to 10, that’s ok. My goal has already been conquered. And I’m thinking ahead to 2014 now. I’m thinking of doing the New Year’s 5K on January 4th.

If I don’t make it to 10 in 2013, then I’ll do it in 2014. I’ve got races from this year that I know I’ll do next year. And I’m getting way more adventurous with my races as well. Both of these things will help me reach whatever goal I have for 2014.

If any of you out there would like to join me for any of these 5Ks, let me know! I’d love more buddies out there on the race course!

Signing Up For More Races (or Hoping To Make It To 10)

So I totally conquered my goal of 5 5Ks this year. In case you don’t remember the 5 that I did, here are the races (and links to the posts):

And now I’ve got an awesome collection of medals that look like this.

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And I’m going to be adding to my collection soon! I’ve signed up for 5K #6, #7, and #8 and I’m hoping that some of you (at least those of you who are local) can come and join me for one of them!

As of right now (because I might be adding more races) 5K #6 will be the LA Cancer Challenge 5K. I’ve never done this race before, but it’s Halloween themed so I really like that! This race is on October 27th so I’ve got a while before the race to try to get my time down some more (and maybe add in another race or two).

The next race that I’m signed up for is the weSPARK 5K that is at Universal Studios. I’ve done this race before, and I’m excited to be doing it for the 3rd time! The first link that I’ve shared for this race will link you to my fundraising page. I’m hoping to raise $100 this year for the cause, so if you can donate even a dollar it will help me out! You can also register to do the race at the link as well.

And finally, I’ve signed up for the Santa Monica Venice Christmas Run. This one is in December, and I’m thinking it is most likely the last race that I will do in 2013. So hopefully this race will end up being #10 instead of #8. This is another race that I’ve never done before, but I’ve heard from friends that the course is very flat, so I’m happy about that.

I’m so excited to have 3 more races coming up this year! I’m on the lookout for the races that will help me get to 10 total, but I’m having some trouble. A lot are on days that I can’t do one (due to my work schedule). And there are a few that I really want to do, but there is a time limit for the 5K and I know that I’m not that fast yet.

Fortunately, as I register for more and more 5Ks, I get added to more and more email lists that let me know about more races. So hopefully something fun will be in my inbox in the future.

I hope that some of you can donate to the weSPARK 5K, as this is a fundraiser for an amazing organization! Also, please let me know if you are going to also do one of the 5Ks I’ve listed because I always love running into people I know at the race!

I still can’t believe that I’m this excited to do 5Ks when only a year ago I was stressed about doing 2 or 3 in a year!

Baby Steps (or Trying To Be Proud Of The Little Victories)

For some reason, I can’t get it in my head that little victories are the steps that I need to take to get to big victories.

I should be ecstatic that I did my last 5K 10 seconds faster than my previous one. But all I can think about is how I am still over a minute slower than my goal time. But when I’ve talked about this with friends who run races, they talk about how they want to be 3 seconds faster or something like that. So 10 seconds (or 26 if you are counting how much faster I am now than my first timed one this year) is amazing.

I have the same issue celebrating my weight loss. I saw a friend online who mentioned that she lost 15 pounds since January and is now only 5 pounds away from her goal weight. That’s amazing! But for me, losing 20 pounds since I set my goal last year is not impressive at all. It’s a drop in the bucket for what I’m trying to do.

I know that in the past in my life, I’ve seen these victories as setbacks. Why have I only lost 20 pounds and not 60? Or 80? It’s a failure. This is why I hesitate to set goals for myself. If I don’t make it, I’ve failed. I haven’t had a partial win.

I don’t know how to change this mindset. I’ve discussed it in the past in therapy (I’ve stopped going because my new insurance doesn’t cover it and my therapist and I agreed that I was ok to stop). One of the things my therapist suggested doing was to not have goals for things related to my weight or health at all. That way, I’d never seem to fail.

But clearly, setting goals does work for me because I did my 5 5Ks in 6 months! Maybe I need to set goals that I can control more, but what counts as control? I should be able to control my weight, but it doesn’t work that way. I should be able to control my speed for my 5K, but again that doesn’t seem to happen for me.

I don’t know if I’m trying to get answers by writing this on here or what, but I needed to let it out. I know that I should be celebrating my 10 second victory this week, and I’m going to try to. I just wish that I didn’t feel like I was faking my happiness.