FIVE THOUSAND FUCKING METERS

What does it feel like to accomplish something that I've never done before?

EXHILARATING/liberating
TRIUMPHANT/significant
POWERFUL/fast

I finished 3.11 miles at a constant rate of 5 mph for an official time of 37:15.

The first mile was easy. I got the first urge to quit around 1.5. My right calf was hurting but I kept going. Once I got to the second mile marker, I just kept counting down how many minutes to go. 12 minutes, 9 minutes. I kept thinking that once I reached 2.5 I would feel like I was on the home stretch. But it didn't feel like that at all. My whole body was tingling, as if a body part had fallen asleep. I knew that "feeling" happens when you cut off circulation to your foot or something, so it wasn't comforting thinking that my body had shut off circulation to my extremities.

There's a reason I hadn't done this before. I had been expecting to come to this blog and post on how easy it was, and how surprising that was. But it wasn't. Around 2.75 my shoes didn't feel right--they felt like I was running in heavy boots. I think that's because my feet had the "fallen asleep" sensation.

Around 2.96 I finally realized that I was going to finish. I had been telling myself the whole time that I can't quit, but once I reached the 3rd mile marker, I knew that I had done it. And then I finally felt like I was on the homestrech, and then I felt a lot better and there's that brief moment when you think that you can keep going past your goal. And then you see 3.11 on the display and every part of you says "stop."

Last night, the only part that was sore was my right calf. I iced it down using a bag of frozen peas. I cooled down, I stretched, I took a shower that briefly alternated cool/hot/cool. I got about 8 hours of sleep, and I feel pretty good. My right calf is still sore, but not really that bad. I think the ice helped. Anyways, no matter what happens, I'll be able to say I ran 5k. And hopefully the next time it's a little easier.