7Ks and other thoughts.

Jeffrey and I discovered our mutual interest for running soon after meeting one another, and I convinced him to run a 5K with me shortly after we started dating. We ran together all over Boise and had a lot of fun doing so. It was never very consistent, but on the weekends when we had the time.

We decided to sign up for a jogging class together this winter term and it has been so much fun. The majority of our running has been on treadmills at the school gym due to the weather. At first we were constantly being interrupted by the football players morning work out who make it awfully hard to concentrate with all their ruckus. It's almost like a game now to get out of the gym before 8:00 a.m. and we are always really close. One of these days maybe we'll be out of there before they do their chant after their warm up, "GET SOOOOOME!"

Part of our running grade is to run a 5K and we ventured to Boise this weekend to participate in Speed to Feed Idaho for a local food bank. We have been so excited for the 5K and we talked about it after almost every run. A couple days before the race I had a pile of kleenexes near by and suddenly realized, "Oh no I can't be sick now!" And it continued to get worse. The night before the 5K I felt like I was going to die, maybe because I enjoyed myself some Sa-wa-dees with Jeff, Jared, and Sam for her birthday :) but still, it was a bummer. Jeff and I warmed up for the race and my throat started an icy fire and I felt like I was going to throw up. Luckily the race setup was ideal. It started right outside of BSU so we were able to stay inside and be warm until it started. And there was a great energy about the place.

As soon as the race began I started to feel better. I took it slow at first, and after saying goodbye to Jeff and watching him slowly fade away in front of me, I found a good pace. Then with about a mile or so left I had a huge burst of energy, and my old friends endorphins kicked in and I finished the race pretty strong. Jeff was there to cheer me on at the finish and I saw my time. 37 minutes seemed quite slow compared to the rest of the winter and Jeff felt the same about his time, 32:30. We shrugged it off, but while we were drinking some water this guy came up to us and said, "Do you think that clock is off? There is no way I could have finished in 37 minutes." It kinda made us laugh because it wasn't a huge deal to us. Then we went to talk to the race director about how our instructor could contact him to verify that we ran the race, and he told us we all ran a 7K. So about 2,000 meters, or 1 mile further than a 5K. Woohoo! It may not have been a PR for us, but it was still accomplishing. Jeff, especially, felt pretty stoked about his first 7K. He has been the best running partner and he always makes me motivated to get up and go. This may be our last official 7K, but there will be many more 5Ks, 10Ks, etc, to come for the Alexander's.