the point at which my lungs felt like they were going to disintegrate

Having run A 5K RACE earlier this year, I am now able to drop that fact casually into any conversation. Want to impress the neighbors? All I have to do is say, "Sure, you can borrow a stick of butter. Which reminds me that I had a real hankerin' for butter at about K3 of THAT 5K RACE I ran in May." Bingo. Impression left.

Want to draw a parallel between running and writing? Simply open a new Create Post template in Blogger and start typing away a few sentences that go something like this:

"With four days left in NaNoWriMo (three if you don't count today) I'm feeling kind of like I felt toward the end of THAT 5K RACE I ran earlier this year. The finish line was almost in sight, but I still had a goodly-sized chunk of running to do. So, this interesting mixture of dread and elation started to set in, and I'm pretty sure it had something to do with the fact that I almost threw up on my neighbor's shoes at the finish line when he reached over to tear off the little paper "finish receipt" on the back of my number." Bingo. Parallel drawn.

Oh, NaNo word count as of this moment: 38,639. Let's hope I don't almost throw up on someone around here after typing word 50,000 later this week.Follow @nicole_mcinnes

cue Vangelis

On second thought, rather than cueing the theme music from "Chariots of Fire," today's story might be better set against music from a movie titled something like "Rickshaws of Warm Milk."
Yes, I ran in my first 5K this morning.

It was actually kind of fun! Except for the part about waking up at 5:45 a.m. and seeing snow outside my window. Yes, snow. In May. The boy was excited to run in the kids' half-mile fun race, though, so I resisted the urge to dive headfirst back under the warm covers.

Also, the part about my hands going numb from the cold and my face feeling like it was going to fall off during the first half of the race (running into the arctic wind) wasn't so fun.

And neither was the end, when I gave all I had in the final stretch and, after crossing the finish line, thought I might throw up on the shoes of my nice neighbor, who's job it was to pull the little information tab from my paper number.

But other than those things, it was great.

Actually, I'm being more melodramatic than is warranted (a REAL shocker, I know). It was big fun to start the race with our son, who is basically a rocket ship with feet. He flew out ahead of me immediately, so I got to watch him and the other kids hit their halfway mark, then u-turn it and race back to the finish line (we gave each other a high-five as he passed me going the opposite direction).

I had driven the course last week, so I had some idea of how long 5 kilometers is. Let's put it this way: It's longer that I am accustomed to running. This course is mainly on asphalt, too, so it was also harder than the prairie/trail running I prefer. But I did run (rather than walk) the whole thing, which was a good feeling. It was humbling, however, to see the winner of the 10K come in only minutes after I finished the 5K. What kind of supplements are these people TAKING? And while I was nowhere near first place, I did get first place for the female 30-39 age group. So, that was pretty cool. The boy came in second place in the kids' race, which meant that both of us got pretty medals to show off.

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