My First 5K R(F)un

I completed my first 5K run last Saturday. I know it sounds crazy, but I really did it J. But to clarify, the run which I did was more for FUN and not much for RUN. I participated in Color Run 2013. It is a 5K run, but you can actually walk, jog, run, do whatever you want basically to reach to the finish line. I felt there were no serious runners in that. Since it was my first time effort, I felt very comfortable in the group.

Let me tell you how this crazy idea started and I will write something about Color R(F)UN. I always wanted to do a 5K at least once. I know couple of my friends do that every year here. I was thinking about it and thought to do Clive Running festival as they had 1 Mile run in it. Thought for the first time runner, it would be easy to try. But unfortunately we were out of town that weekend and I could not participate in it. I was like, it is over and let me think about it next year (usual procrastination but with the feeling that I tried and it did not happen). After few days, one of my colleague asked me whether I could join her for Color Run. I did not know anything about it and also it is for 5K which is 3.2 miles. I was not very sure and told her about it. It was her first time too and she encouraged me so much saying that Color Run is much fun than serious running and we can train together. I agreed and we decided to form a team (needed at least 4 members). I really wanted Vijay to join me, but since one of us need to take care of kids on the race day, I did not ask him. I checked with my neighbors/friends Aparna, Satish and Harish. Finally Satish joined our team and we managed to pull in one more colleague. All of us registered successfully, but the training part was very hard. Madhavi & I could not train together for various reasons, something or the other came up during our lunch breaks. I tried to train with Satish in our neighborhood and we did couple of times, but not a whole lot. And the 4^th member who joined was a runner already and we did not worry much about him.

I was very guilty when the date (July 13^th 2013) came closer. And was not sure whether we could even complete. On top of this, I got neck sprain from Wednesday night and it became worse on Friday morning. I took off from work and went to urgent care. Looked like I strained my trapezius muscle which connects the neck, back and shoulder. Doctor advised me to take large dosage of Ibuprofen and icepack for few days. I asked her about the running and she said it is ok to do run the next day. I became more anxious after that.

I took Satvika with me in the evening and went to Sports Authority for packet pickup. There were hundreds of people in the line to get the packet and everyone looked like a runner to me J. Finally with brave heart, I stood in line and got my packet. But I told Satvika that I am little worried about my run and not sure how am I going to manage the run. She told me “Amma! It is not about winning or losing. You need to participate and that is important”. Looks like I told something like this to her some time ago and she told me the same advise again. Thought it was very cute J.

The same night Madhavi called me and asked about my neck & run. She assumed that I was not going to run as I had neck sprain and she did not even get her packet. I told her that I already picked up mine and Satish’s packets and I am still ON. I thought she was surprised but she decided to join us the next day. On July 13^th Saturday, she went early to pick up the packet and came back home. I went to down town with Satish’s family, but could not locate Madhavi. There were 1000’s of people, it was really cool. My bib number was 18216, but there were people with 90000 number too. They had one run at 9 AM and another one at 1 PM. We picked 9 AM run. They gave each of the participant with the color packet which you can use after the run. But participants already started throwing colors at people when we were waiting.

Since there were tons and tons of participants, they were sending people in batches. We did not realize that and Satish & I were wondering why no one is running even after 9 AM J. Finally we figured out the cause and moved little front in the crowd. We both finally started the run at 10:02 AM and finished it by 10:45 AM. It was about 43 minutes. Really not bad for the first time, I think. I thought we could have done 5 or 6 minutes earlier if we could have run for little more time and if I had not asked Satish to take pictures of me in the middle of RUN J. Because of the crowd, you have to jog for some time, run for some time and walk for some time. And on top of all these, they had color zones in the middle. Whenever you cross them, there were volunteers to put colors on us. We had four color zones – Blue, Orange, Yellow and Pink. By the time you reach the finish line, you will be colored all over. Some brought little kids, babies and even their pets. Since this is not a serious run, we were not intimidated and I think that is the good thing for the first time runners.

Everyone enjoyed and I thought this may be a good family run next time. I hope I could take Vijay & Satvika next time. I really need to thank Madhavi for asking me to do this with her.

On the whole, Color RUN was really FUN !!!