Wee Little 5k

I had planned on doing the Fleet Feet Women's 10k in Chicago in mid-July, but turns out Mike has to work that day and it's not worth getting the kids (and their grandparents to watch them) up so early so I can run at 7 a.m.

I signed up for another race though - - the Wee Little Virtual 5k. I joined a Virtual Running Club this week, so seems only fitting that I enter a virtual 5k. Thanks to fellow VRC member Kitzzy for leading me to it.

Little by Little, our host for the event, is asking Virtual 5k participants to complete a questionnaire, so here goes:

1. When did you start running?
March 2007. The instigator? Dinner with my sister Jeanine and cousin John in December 2006. I left the table for a few minutes to pee and came back to find out I was signing up for the 2007 Chicago Marathon. Sure it seemed a little crazy, (you say crazy, you say stupid, I say spontaneous) but I thought it might get me on to a consistent path to lose the weight I gained since having kids. (Did I mention dinner was at The Cheesecake Factory? Yes, I was doing really well with losing weight. No exercise and dinners out with cheesecake.) With more cousins on board (cocktails on Christmas Eve were involved) we got serious about it. Naive, so naive.

2. Did you follow a plan (C25K etc.) to get you started running? If so, what plan did you use? If not, how did you go about getting started?
While training for the 2007 Chicago Marathon, (if you're curious about what transpired, click here) I followed The Non-Runners' Guide to Marathon Training. It's a great book, based on the Marathon Class at the University of Iowa. It was also the only piece of material I could find that supported a non-runner like me starting out from couch potato and going to Marathon in the same year.

3. Why did you start running?
Peer pressure (see Q#1). Actually, completing a marathon before I hit 40 (2010) had been a goal; I only had a few years left to do it.

4. Now that you are running regularly, what do you find to be the biggest benefits?
Weight loss, stress relief and looking back, I think I needed a hobby besides work, laundry and taking care of the kids. Oh, and eating. That wasn't a good hobby. My husband has taken up running again so it's nice to have a common hobby with him. With my sister and cousins running/marathon training too, it's brought us closer together. Although we live in the same metro area, we all lead different lives and it was easy for work/family/life to get in the way. We connect a lot to support each other's training and complete races together. Also, I think it's a good example for my kids - - it's good for them to see my husband and I exercising regularly and once I complete a marathon, I want them to understand that if you make a goal and work toward it, you can achieve anything you want to.

5. What are your future plans for running? Short-term and Long-range.
Short-term: Complete a Marathon before I'm 40 (I turn 38 in October) Preferably, the Chicago Marathon since that's where I'm from. Long-term: I've thought about some of those wacky marathon goals like completing races that start with every letter of the alphabet or maybe run a marathon in the Midwest, East Coast, West Coast and South. I also thought (I have a lot of time to think on these runs you know) about setting a goal to qualify for Boston by the time I'm 45 but that's probably crazy talk.

6. What are your personal goals for the Virtual 5K?
Hmmm. I've always been slow so completing in under 35 minutes would be fine by me.

7. Do you have a music “theme song” that you will use for this race?
I've been stuck in a rut lately playing the same songs on my iPod, but then again, those are the songs that keep me moving. Maybe I can be patriotic for this pre Fourth of July race and have Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" as my theme song.