5 kilometers. 3 miles. Bib number 10715. 30.43 minutes. In plain ol’ English - I did it!
Along with hundreds of other participants – I ran (mostly) my first 5K as part of the 15th annual Toronto Marathon.
I started training 4 months ago as a completely new runner, even, dare I say it, a reluctant runner. Previously, I counted myself more a card-carrying member of the run for a reason camp, because you know what - there are plenty of reasons to run, say, for example, if you are being chased, if you want to get the last pre-rush hour streetcar where you might (fingers crossed) get a seat and a crumpled, H1N1-infested copy of Metro. And we’ve all done the Tim dash, you know the one, when you stop in at your local Tim’s with 5 minutes left on the clock to grab a last minute coffee (5 minutes is plenty of time) and the line up hits what can only be described as logic defying gridlock; you can’t be late again. But, you need, need that coffee. You wait, order your coffee and then you run. Then there’s the much longer OMG the daycare starts charging extra in 18 minutes 1000-meter run. Oh, you go like a pumped up Olympian. Hey, it’s a dollar a minute.
Yes, I think we can all agree, for moms and dads around the world - running for a reason – is almost unavoidable.
Now ponder this: running for almost no reason, getting up at 6 am on a Sunday morning, voluntarily leaving the warmth of your bed to rush to a start line with a few hundred other people to run 5 kilometers, yea, just to run - in a circle, literally.
And the craziest part about it is - I can’t wait to do it again.
Against all odds, it turn out, I like running. It’s free. It’s mobile. It’s equipment free.
But more than that, I like to feel my feet hit the pavement, to hear the heaviness of my breath, to feel my heart pumping. I love getting my sweat on, getting red-faced and salty and I like getting faster and stronger. I like the fact that Bridget sees me running and I hope that one day, instead of being at the finish line, cheering me on, she will be running right beside me.
She might discover much earlier than I did, that sometimes running for no reason is much more enjoyable, and frankly a lot less pressure, than running for a reason.
