My personal story on how I prepared myself for a 5K
Completing my first 5K run was such an enormous feat for me, I wanted to share my story.
I went from not being able to run past 0.25M at the beginning of June to running about 2.7M of my 5K this past Friday. It was about a 3.1M stretch but the terrain they had during the run was definitely not conducive for running. It was the training schedule I stuck too that got me through it though. I had started to train 8 weeks before the Blacklight Run.
The runs in the beginning were the hardest. I had to go into this real deep mental space to even get on the treadmill. I felt defeated before I even started and that feeling just brings discouragement to me. The funny movies I would stream provided a good distraction but it didn’t stop me from looking at the timer every millisecond, like well, just 14:58 minutes to go (From a 15 min run lol). After the first week or so my body dropped a lot of water weight, and I felt lighter. My chest is a size DD so finding a decent bra or bras in my case was also imperative. I felt stronger.
I incorporated weight lifting and full body workouts to keep my cardio levels up. I went on a no carbs diet the month before so I was eating a lot better. By week 3, I was doing 1.25M runs in 12-13 minutes. Once you learn your rhythm, there is this calm that comes over you while running. I think it is your breathing pattern. You take deep breaths in and out and you kind of get inside of your body in a way.
Before even seeing the results in the mirror, I gained this whole new confidence. Now I am already a pretty confident person and I attribute it to my hard work and upbringing but over coming personal goals, will never get old to me. It is a refreshing feeling. No matter what we face, life has its moments. To keep the faith alive, I constantly have to push myself to that next level. I never considered it to be another level of confidence but that’s exactly what it is. Never lose sight of the person you are or your true purpose in life. I never believed or followed the ideology that life has to be this hardship. It does not have to be a struggle if you stop and enjoy every moment. It really isn’t about the destination, it’s all about the journey.
Every challenge you make it through, you prove to yourself, and to others, just how powerful and strong willed we all can be. You should attack every obstacle with an open mindset. I find that many people speak doubtfully, and they don’t even realize it. I speak light and love. I don’t stay in the dark space. I fight to become the best version of myself. I’m all about change and reinventing. It is the life process in my opinion. None of us stay exactly the same yet none of us really lose the essence of yourselves. It is a very fine line of basically fine tuning the parts of yourself that you love and removing the bad habits that you hate.
We all move at different paces and we all have a different journey. I find that by staying my own course, while inspiring others by either words, my images, or my successes, I keep myself grounded and not in competition with anyone besides myself.
You can do it too!
