My first 5K..

My first 5K was a Mud Run that I did with a group of nursing students. I tend not to count it as a "real" 5K because there were so many obstacles and waiting in lines to complete the obstacles that there was a lot less running than a regular 5K.

However, it was my first experience at any type of racing event, and I completely fell in love! The free beer after the run definitely helped!

My team and I spent the night before the race making costumes and decided to go in fully make up'ed out. It was such a fun experience with a great group of people, and it really inspired me to continue training for my first "real" 5K...

Mind you, I have never been a runner. Even when I was younger and did dance growing up until high school, I still hated the days we had to run track. I have learned to embrace it and want to overcome my obstacles with running.

The RuNs

The last obstacle!

All muddy!

We did it!

After our "showers"

I ran the Del Mar Mud Run in 49 minutes...obviously that is very slow, but since there was so much waiting around and climbing through mud puddles, I'm hoping to reasonably run a regular 5K in 40 minutes or less. I realize that is still very slow, but for a beginner like me, it would be wonderful to just be able to run the entire race without stopping to walk.