Last February, my coworkers all decided that we should sign up for a local 4-mile run/walk together. I agreed, but was completely out of shape and wanted to make sure I could finish, so I started walking. That led to dieting and eventually losing over 100 lbs (and counting!).

Well, most of the people ended up flaking out, but my son and I walked it last May (with a few jogs in there) and ended up finishing in about 1:15.

I really wanted to do the race again this year because it was such a significant turning point for me. My son didn't want to do it, so I signed up by myself.

I've been running consistently since January and had completed C25K, so I knew my time would be better than last year. Two things were making me nervous though - 1 - I only run on a treadmill and 2 - this race has a HUGE hill, basically a mile up and a mile down. I set a goal of 1:00:00, that's about a 15 min pace and I normally am around 13:30 on the tm.

As I was approaching the 2 mile marker (and 3/4 of the way up the hill) I heard my running app tell me that I'd been going for 20 minutes. 20 minutes?!? I knew I had my goal of 1 hour in the bag, and I was going to push to hit my stretch goal of under 50:00, which I had thought there was NO WAY I could do... that required beating a 12:30 pace!

Once I got to the finish I was DONE, I left nothing in the tank. I was pretty far back in the pack when I started, so I knew I was close to 50:00 but had to wait for the chip times to come in. I was THRILLED TO PIECES when I saw that I had finished in 49:28

Good for you!!!! What an awesome accomplishment! I'm doing my first 5K this summer and hope I have results similar to you!

Keep up the good work!

That is an amazing story! Huge congratulations!

Thanks so much for sharing it was very helpful and motivating to me.