5 Reasons Why I Needed to Run My First 5K

The author at the finish line.

“it’s going to rain the entire time. Do you still wanna do this?”- was the text I got at 7am today.

And for a moment I paused and considered not going to the race I’d been prepping for four months. But then I thought, “You’ve gotta do this. It might be terrible it might be amazing, but it will be an experience to remember either way. And life is meant to experience.”

“Let’s do this”, I replied.

And we set out to finish our goal as the rain poured down. We were covered in mud. We barely ran, few actually did. But we didn’t sprain any ankles, we didn’t fall down, and we never gave up.

I was never an athlete.

I’ve tried lots of sports and found my lack of coordination to be a bit of a deterrent. I tried soccer, volleyball, tennis, ice skating and lacrosse during high school alone but ultimately ended up in drama class instead.

Forty-one years into my life, I knew I’d never compete in the Olympics. But I wanted to do “something”, and my friend Amanda said, “Want to try running?” and here I am with my first 5K behind me. Here’s why I needed to do this right now.

1) I needed a goal. Step one was to find a reason to run, so we picked the Hard Cider Run in Warwick, NY an hour away from our home in Peekskill. I wanted something…