Operation Transformation 5km Run - Saturday, 19th February 2011

So there we were at the starting line. Our first official race, along side 3,500 others. Johnny asked me if I was nervous. I lied and told him, I wasn't. To be honest I actually had butterflies. What if I could only run for a minute or two? What if I tripped? What if I got a stitch? It was ok for Johnny, he had been building up his running in the evenings. I had been running on the treadmill but I had never ran outside. And anyway, the furthest I had run on the treadmill was 4km. The gun went and we started. We decided to keep a slow pace in an effort to make it to the end without stopping. The atmosphere was great. It was actually a lot easier than expected to run in such a large group. We didn't let the faster people passing us by put us off. We had our own goal. To make it to the finish line of our first race.

20 minutes on and approaching our second hill I gave in. My legs were like jelly and I felt like I was going to throw up so I decided to walk up the hill. Johhny continued on jogging. At the top of the hill I started to run again and made it a bit further before having to take a second walking break. At this point I told Johnny to keep on without me. He had set himself a challenge of finishing without stopping and I didn't want him not to reach this. I walked for a little and then heard a voice saying that if we kept jogging we would make the finish line in under 40 mins. This was the incentive that I needed. I had set myself a target of 45 mins and now I had 40 mins in my sights. Although my legs felt like they would go from beneath me, I began to run again. I could not believe my eyes when the finish line came into sight and 35.5 mins was on the clock. I gave one final push and crossed the line at 36mins 16secs, only one and a half minutes behind Johnny (34mins 42secs). I actually felt very emotional crossing the line. Even though I had to stop twice, I ran 5km in 36 mins. I couldn't believe it. Johhny was really happy to do it without stopping. This was an amazing achievement. We hadn't specifically trained for this event. It just shows you what you are capable of without even knowing.