Today was my second 5k run.  With the weather being so dreary and cold the past month and with me being sick for the past 3 weeks, I haven’t been running like I had charted out in my 5k preparation Nike+ trainer log.  In fact, if I log into my Nike+ profile, there are probably a bunch of frowning faces for all the days I missed my delegated runs.  It’s much easier to get excited about running in the summer with cool temperatures, early evening darkness, and sickness aren’t so much of a factor.

Surprisingly, today’s forecast predicted a sunny day with the temperature in the 50’s.  Even so, 7:45 this morning my car windows were frosted over and the grass was covered with icy frost.  It wasn’t all that bad though because in the course of this week, I had found two friends to run with me!

I convinced Michelle to sign up earlier this week so we were really excited to be able to go together.  Then yesterday at the gym, our new friend Phoebe decided to go also so we had a car full of 3 [freezing, but chipper] ladies this morning.

The run itself was through a beautiful stretch of downtown Iowa City with the leaves changing colors and quaint old houses boasting wrap-around porches larger than their inside square footage.  What Phoebe failed to mention is that she used to be a half-marathoner and so she stayed with Michelle and I for the first 2 miles of the race then took off with her long legs and we were like, “Wow, she can totally kick our butts!”  As it turned out, we all met at the finish line, happy to be there and proud of ourselves for doing it and motivating each other.

I learned that it’s so much more fun to run with friends than alone.  I learned that running with a number bib is totally more fun than I had even dreamed.  (That’s the whole reason, by the way, that I signed up for Run for the Schools.  I just wanted to wear a running bib to look cool.  You can imagine how upset I was in the NL Fun Run that they didn’t have bibs for us!)  I learned that 5k is hard to run when I’m out of practice and when my chest is still congested.  I learned that my husband is most motivating and heart-warming volunteer to see at around the halfway point.  I learned that running and chatting don’t mix well for me.  I learned that a runny nose is easily workable if I wear gloves…gross, yes.

Next year, our goal is to do the 10k together.  More advanced training will have to go into that, for sure.