Running Goals

After putting my post together last week, and thinking about my fitness goals, I realized that I had never written about another big accomplishment I had made in 2011: running a 5K! I actually ended up running two: the Bucktown 5K and the Hot Chocolate 5K. The Bucktown race was a smaller Chicago neighborhood race through my very own hood (the course went just one street from my house!) and the Hot Chocolate was a much bigger race that went through the loop downtown--with chocolate at the end, of course.

My friend Becky encouraged me to run--that and the sweet, sweet goody bag jacket. We had fun encouraging each other since it was the first time racing for both of us, and even though we didn't actually train together, it was good to have someone to talk to that was working at the same pace.

For my training (yes, you don't go from barely running to three miles), another, more advanced, runner friend had recommended the Hal Higdon "Couch to 5K" program. I didn't follow it exactly, but it was a great guide to slowly build up endurance. The best part of racing was challenging myself to beat my first time in the second race--which I did!

This year the goal is to work up to running a 10K and maaaaybe a half marathon! Up and up!