My first #5k

Last Sunday I ran my very first 5k race! It was really cold morning in NYC, 30 degrees to be exact but felt like 25 degrees. As you may seen in previous posts, I’ve been running for the past 2 years, never in a race, only as a hobby. But this past Sunday I decided to participate in the Girls On The Run NYC 5k race. One of my boyfriend’s cousin, Milani, is part of the Girls On the Run program, which is actually more than a running program. This organization actually has created a fun and experience-based curriculum that integrates running to inspire girls to be joyful, health and confident. These curriculum helps girls from 3rd to 8th grade to learn who they are and what’s important to them. They also learn the importance of working in teams and having a good and healthy relationship between team members.

When I was asked by the parents of Milani to join her in the race as a running buddy , I didn’t think it twice. I love running and I thought it was going to be cool to be part of a race and an event from such a meaningful organization. However, I didn’t think that we were going to make it to the finish line and we were probably going to walk more than run. Milani is only 10 years old and I thought that she probably wasn’t going to make it, since it was a cold winter morning at Randall’s Island.

To my surprise, the day of the race I could feel the energy flowing among the members and coaches. Milani and her friends looked so excited and thrilled to run this 5k.  When it was time to go to the track, her mom mentioned to me that her previous running buddy always pushed her to the end so she does not stop running. It was time to get together with her school’s team and before the race started we warmed up listening to Pitbull’s and Katy Perry’s songs.

After our team photo and everyone got in place, the race started. I told Milani to stay behind with me because we shouldn’t waste all our energy since we still had a long way to go. For the first 10 minutes she didn’t stop, she was actually talking to me and telling me how this was her last year and she was going to be miss being part of this program. I kept asking her if she was felling ok and to breath through her nose not through her mouth.

We were about to reach the mid point, and she told me she wanted to make a stop at the water break. I agreed, we stopped and we counted until 20 and then we kept going. Probably on the 1.6 mile she was feeling tired, I could see it on her face, but we kept encouraging her to not stop because we were almost there. On 1.8 mil we stopped, and again, I counted until 20 and continued running. It was amazing how she felt motivated to finish the race. My boyfriend became her running buddy too, he ran with us and he kept motivating her all the way through, especially towards the end. When we were making our return to the stadium, we could hear people screaming with enthusiasm, and we told Milani, we are about to hit the finish line, your parents are going to be so proud of you. She looked at us and said “I’m going to sprint when we get to the race track”. And she did as soon as we got to the race track. The race started at the race track and finished in the race track, however we had to run for approximately 1.5 miles outside the stadium. I’m very emotional and I wanted to cry when I saw her running so fast while everyone was cheering for her and her little friends. I felt so proud of her! She made it second on her team and she finished the race without barely stopping.

Once we got to the finish line, I realized it was my first race and I also made it! My boyfriend and I were not only extremely proud of Milani, but also of ourselves. We were part of a great cause and got to do our first 5k race.  It was an amazing experience and we already promised her we were going to do it again next year, and that she can be part of our weekend runs along the FDR.

Here are some pictures of the running event:

-Peruvian Chica in NYC