Racing (?), Limping, Resting, and Napping For The Cure

Holy crap people, I walked a 5K today. No way I thought I could do it. I hadn't trained for it. My walks consist of 10 minutes around the block with Buster. Oh, and I weigh almost 350 pounds. But I walked a 5K today, dammit.

I probably would not have subjected myself to this today (it was really freakin' hard!) except that it was the Race for The Cure and we did it to support one of my good friends who has just finished treatment and surgery for breast cancer. She's only 35!


So how did it go down? Well, first of all I almost talked myself out of doing it more than once, including this morning when my alarm went off. But the thought of letting my friend down and the idea that she had been through months of treatment and surgery and was still going to do the walk finally made me lug my butt out of bed and get ready.

The walk started out very slow as there were 16,000 people there all bunched up at the starting line. It was sunny and a nice cool breeze was blowing. Very nice. I made it through the first mile doing pretty well. We weren't walking real fast but it was a workout to me while the others were just on a leisurely stroll. I was breathing hard and my back was starting to hurt. I just tried to focus on the breeze and the blue skies and not my physical discomfort.

About 1.5 miles in we hit the hills. Oh shit. At first the hills were OK because for some reason it made my back feel better to walk uphill. But I was really getting winded. I finally had to stop and sit down for a few minutes to catch my breath. The others hadn't noticed that I stopped and went on. That was OK. Once I got started again I was able to walk at my own pace rather than trying to keep up with them. That helped.

Every so often in that second half of the race where I was walking alone, I had to stop and sit. I was determined to finish but doubt was starting to creep in. I wasn't paying alot of attention to anyone else but I do have to say a couple of people were quite kind to this fat lady huffing and puffing and sweating. One asked if I was OK when I stopped to sit awhile. Another offered me a bottle of water as we went up another torturous hill. One one hand, it was embarrassing to realize people were noticing my struggle. On the other, it was good to realize some people still know how to be kind, rather than rude or judgmental.

In the homestretch of the walk, I could see the finish line and knew my friends were there waiting because they had texted me. As I kept trudging along I saw a little old lady who looked to be in her 80's, bent with osteoporosis, pass me up. Damn. That was some harsh reality.

But, I finished. Yes, indeed, I did. It took me one hour and 30 minutes, but I finished. I was proud that I had but also completely spent. I decided not to stick around for the festivities that followed because I was too exhausted to want to be standing around much longer so I said my goodbyes and hobbled several blocks back to my car.

I had intended to hit the late Weight Watchers meeting after the walk, but since it took me so much longer than I had thought it would, I missed it. So I headed home where I cleaned up and promptly fell asleep for several hours. I was exhausted.

Tonight my feet and ankles are very sore and I am limping around. I am proud of my accomplishment today. At the same time, it is a brutal wake up call as to how out of shape I am and how much my weight hinders me.

I don't think I'll be doing another 5K for awhile because it took too much out of me. But it did make me want to step up my exercise just a bit and start getting this weight off and getting some of my fitness back.