12. Run a 5K in under 20:30 minutes

This is an ambitious goal I took on. Last weekend my brother and I headed down to Champaign, IL to run a couple of races. Matt ran a marathon (7th in 7 months) and I took it easy with a 5K. Matt and I had run a marathon just two weeks earlier so I thought it might not be the best idea to run another marathon in such a short time. Matt has been on a mission so he went forward and ran 26.2 miles again. I took on the goal of 20:30 for the 5K because I knew it would be quite the accomplishment. That is the point of this undertaking, when I wrote my goals, it was comprised of things that I knew I would want to accomplish and wanted to be proud of after completing. This is one of the goals that I knew would be tough and knew would require dedication to complete. This weekend showed that I would truly need to keep training to get the time I need to successfully fulfill this goal.
The race started out good. I was in the front of the pack and didn't have anyone ahead of me to get in my way. This proved to be a good strategy because there were not many people that passed me and the whole time I didn't have to worry about maneuvering around other people. During the race, there were many times that I wanted to stop running and stop pushing, but I knew I needed to do my best. My best for that race was 22:22. Yep, I have a long way to go in order to get the goal of 20:30. I have been running marathon speed (slow) for quite awhile, so I now have to work to be able to get my speed up. I've got 7 weeks until the next 5K. I don't know if I will be able to get in shape by then, but I'm going to do my best to get it done.
By the way, the picture was taken hours after I had finished my race. I didn't run the race in jeans, Matt helped me sneak down on the field with him when he was done to get the picture.