I finished a 5km race!

There's something I can cross off my bucket list! I've just finished the 5km race in the Sunshine Coast Marathon!  I'm coming back to edit this, just realising that what I am totally neglecting to mention here is that 12 months ago there is no way I could walk 5km at all, due to the arthritic pain from psoriatic arthritis.  I have Bruce Springsteen's inspiration and my own determination to thank for this remarkable recovery. 

I still have arthritis, but like any auto-immune disease, it is affected quite incredibly, not only by stress (in a bad way) but also by happiness and joy.  The lighter, more joyful and happy I feel, the less impact the disease has on my life. I am still prone to injury, particularly muscle and tendon strain, and swelling, however my pain levels are significantly reduced since I started exercising, and especially since I started enjoying life to the fullest, courtesy of Bruce Springsteen's musical inspiration.  I hope that in the months leading up to his arrival in February, and in the months after he leaves Australia again, that I get my fill of Springsteen-motivation and am able to carry on with even more mobility and less pain for at least a year!  After his concerts this past March, the extreme happiness bubble wore off within 3 months. Its sort of back now, and I intend to keep building on the happiness so that my Bruce happiness bubble keeps me going for a considerable time!

My goals today were to 1. finish and 2. finish in under one hour.  I managed both, quite easily!  My time was 50 minutes and 14 seconds!  Which I believe is 6km / hour, if my maths brain is still working!

I can safely say that I think I'm hooked. Its fun to be in a great big group of people running and walking. Setting a pace of 6 km / hour over 5 kms is quite remarkable for me, and it was all about having people in front of me that I could focus on catching up to and keeping up with.

 

As usual thing didn't go as much to plan as I would like. My poor phone decided to have a conniption so Runkeeper didn't work and I had no idea of my pace until 3km into the race, when the helpful water station people knew we were at the 3km mark.  Then it was a bit of a race to finish under 1 hour.

I enjoyed my almost hour of Bruce. The playlist for my walk was

All or Nothing at All
All that Heaven Will Allow
Atlantic City
The Rising
We Take Care of Our Own
Easy Money
Shackled and Drawn
Reason to Believe
Glory Days
Dancing in the Dark
Shackled and Drawn again :)

By this time next year I hope to be up to some variation on the 5km I just did. Perhaps some jogging along with the walking. It really depends as jogging does have an impact on my spine, and I need to protect that part of me!

Either way, I'm sure next year I can do a better place, and get closer to the top half of the field.

I'll absolutely be doing this one again because the location and weather couldn't be more perfect!

 

Tomorrow I might be a little sore. At the moment I have a few blisters, hopefully they will heal up before work tomorrow!