Sunday's 5k Race

Yesterday I did a 5k walking race for “Pace Kids” at South Glenmore Park in Calgary. The day was perfect – we’d had a couple of good storms the day before, and so it was cool, fresh, and a little damp, but sunny. The course itself was through the woods so it was absolutely lovely.

Now I can do a 5k without breaking a sweat, any time of the week. However, I took this race quite seriously and worked to set a personal best goal for speed. I’ve been working hard on my form and wanted to see if it paid off.

The first thing that happened is that my iPod fritzed and so it took almost a kilometer for it to start working properly (I ended up laying hands on it and telling it to work in Jesus’ name, and it hopped right to it! LOL! Gotta love the power of God in desperate situations!) I had set up a trio of tracks at different speeds – 167 beats per minute, 171 bpm, and 173 bpm (the actual track starts about 3 min. into that recording, if you want to see how fast I walk). I’ve NEVER consistently walked that fast before. I managed to complete most of the race at the 173 level. Pretty proud of myself.

I also very quickly passed all the walkers and a large part of the joggers. That was pretty encouraging!

Tom and Tina, who were faithfully waiting for me at the finish line, said I was the first walker through, which was pretty cool. Unfortunately, this particular race doesn’t track walkers and runner separately, so that wasn’t noted anywhere. I had fun though, and felt great that I could keep up that pace for almost 45 minutes.

My goal was to beat my personal best, which, according to my Nike+ iPod system is 35’11″, but I quickly found out that my iPod is almost 20% inaccurate when it comes to logging my pace. Sigh. What my iPod tracked as a 7’03″ minute kilometer, the race tracked as more like 8’30″ or something (still waiting to get the final results). That was disheartening, as I know I walked this 5k faster than I’ve ever walked one before. The 35’11″ pace obviously isn’t even close to being accurate. However, I am pleased with my efforts and now have a clearer idea of where to head in my future training (10Km training starts tomorrow for a race in October). And at the end Lance Armstrong announced (though the Nike program on my iPod) that I’d set a new personal best for the mile. That was encouraging.

The most amazing event was the family 1km which I walked with Tina afterward. We were in a crowd of kids that were pretty challenged as far as being able to do something as “simple” as walking. They were amazing. Sporting prostheses, braces, using walkers, crutches, and some just limping along, we all crossed the finish line together, and I was moved to thank God that not only did I have two strong, undamaged legs, but so did my kids and my husband. The kids and their parents in that race all deserved a medal, that’s for sure! Very impressive!

There’s still time to send in a donation if you like. These are worthy kids, struggling pretty hard to do stuff that we take for granted each and every day. Pretty cool watching them tackle that race with all the focus and energy it took me to walk the 5k. Click the button below to send a donation:

So, onward and upward, taking my iPod results with a HUGE grain of salt! LOL!

Darlene