Wish Me Luck! A 5K on Saturday

With the house-buying, wedding, and puppy-training behind me, I no longer have an excuse for not exercising, so I've decided it's time to get back on the wagon. I've been to my gym's women's center three times in the last week. Right now I'm only running/walking on the treadmill, because I still feel pressed for time, and running is my goal.

I've signed up for a 5K and a 4-mile run. The 5K is this Saturday! I'm totally not ready.

The first annual Project Haiti 5K is part of Project Haiti, a medical mission trip of students, faculty, and staff of the University of Florida College of Medicine and Shands Hospital in Gainesville, FL. Started in 1996, every year they travel to provide free healthcare to people of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

My friend Kelly, who ran the Disney Marathon this January, suggested a group of us do it. Of course, just because I signed up with her and some other friends doesn't mean I'll be running with them. I am, after all, a penguin - a slow runner. I'll say hello when we all meet at 8:30 am on Saturday morning to start the 5K, and then cheerfully wave goodbye, and well, eat their dust.

Because a woman who runs marathons - that's 26.2 miles, y'all - should not have to wait up for a chick who's "running" a 15-minute mile. And also because I subscribe to the Jeff Galloway "run walk method," so no matter how fast I will ever run, I will always take walk breaks, and that's not for everybody, I know.

A 5K is a little over three miles, so I think I should be okay. I just hope I'm not last!

My husband asked if I was going to the "big" gym, and I told him that I was going to the gym's women's center. Not only because it's smaller and more "adult" than the main center, but also because I don't - DO NOT - want to run into any of our gym rat friends. Very few things are as embarrassing as wheezing along on a treadmill, going reeeaally slow, than having some buff dude and his tiny-and-trim girlfriend stop to say hello. When I'm running, my face gets all red and I sweat like, I don't know, like someone who sweats a lot. Like my old food service boss in college, who was easily 300 pounds and drank like a fish. Wow, did that man sweat.

ANYWAY. The proceeds from the Project Haiti 5K this weekend will go to toys, toiletries, clothing, medicines and more for the people the project serves in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Wish me luck!