One Great Day

Apr 08, 2010

The day finally arrived….My first 5K race. It seemed like only yesterday when I said I would run this race with my friends from my support group, Long Island Post Ops (LIPO). Did I train enough, am I ready…will I finish ? All of these questions were “running” around in my head the night before the race. But let’s start at the beginning...

Only 2 years ago, I would have laughed at you if you asked me to run a 5K race. I was 165 pounds heavier than I am today and was as healthy as road kill. Then I had a gastric bypass and my life changed forever. Now 2 years post surgery, I’m healthy and ready to live life to the fullest. I started working out with my friends at the gym (gym..that was a foreign word to me 2 years ago) and decided to run the 5K with them. Could I do this? I wasn’t sure but I was gonna give it a try. And to make matters worse, I work nights as a pharmacist at a local hospital and was scheduled to work the night before the race. So let’s recap, I’m going to try to run my first 5K race after working 10 ½ hours overnight before the race….What the hell was I thinking!!!

My shift ended the day of the race and I quickly changed from my work clothes to my running clothes. As I was driving to the race site, I started to play “pump-up” music in my car. And a funny thing happened. Instead of being exhausted from working all night, I was getting excited and pumped up. I arrived at the race, checked in and started to hang out with my friends and the other runners. I didn’t expect what happened next. Being around the other runners, my competitive juices started to flow and I couldn’t wait to compete. Now, I didn’t just want to finish…I wanted to WIN !!! I knew this was unrealistic, but that’s how I felt. The race started and off we went. Some of my friends decided to walk the race and some decided to run. I’m so proud of all of them for completing the race! As my music was playing in my headphones, I was looking at all the runners and the spectators and I felt like I was 16 years old again. I wasn’t a 50 year old man trying to run his first 5K but a 16 year old getting ready to compete with the best the town had to offer..and I was gonna win !!! So I ran and run and ran and I finished the race. As I approach the finish line, I looked up to see two of my dear friends Dan & Maryellen cheering me on! Boy were they a sight for sore eyes !!  Did I win….YES !!! I didn’t come in first, in fact I finished 131 out of 161 with a time of 36:43. I finished 12^th for my age group. Not bad for my first race. But as far as I was concerned, I won ! I did something that 2 years ago would have been impossible, so yes I won this race !

What’s next…maybe a 27 mile bike race with some friends. Wow 27 miles, that’s far and I never did that before. All I want to do is finish...or maybe...we’ll see !!!  

Frank

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