Today I ran my first 'official' 5K! I say 'official' in quotes because I had run a few 5Ks in training up to this point and this was the first 'official' 5K event I've participated in. I don't think it'll be the last 5K I participate in either because it ended up being a lot of fun.

I started running back in September once my friend brought up the idea of me joining them for a 5K and this was the first time in my life where I actually tried to 'train' for a run/5K. I wouldn't say I had any regularly-scheduled runs but I definitely ran more in these past 3 months than the rest of my life combined. More notably, I have never run a 5K before I started running more seriously back in September so I'm so happy that I was able to do this.

I don't think I've fallen in love with running yet but there are definitely some things I do enjoy about it, such as:

• The feeling of accomplishment from going for a run.
• The convenience of just putting on my running shoes and running for however long I want to go.

Before I started typing that bulletpoint list, I thought I had way more things I liked about running but those were actually the main points I could think of at the moment.

I have never been much of a runner my entire life; I feel like I can get pretty winded after a short run and after most of my runs, I physically feel pretty beat up. Perhaps I could add some things into my running like stretching or looking into proper form but I am as casual as a casual runner can be; if I want to run, I will go for a run and if I don't want to run, then I won't. I also prefer running in the cold weather which limits my running to about 3 or 4 months of the year depending on how giving Florida's weather feels like being.

In this 3 month stint of running so far, I have got some personal achievements under my belt such as getting my mile time under 10 minutes a handful of times, going for a few unofficial 5Ks, being able to run longer than I have in the past. And honestly, I'm really proud that I was able to put my mind to giving running a more proper try than I have before. I feel like in the past, I would've given up on running after a week or two but currently, I feel more motivated to do more 5Ks in the future and that I can add running in my list of hobbies that I can fall back on.

My time for this 5K was 36:16.8 as you can see above, and currently that's my PR! What a day to break a PR. It was a great morning for running too, the weather hovering around 53°F throughout the run. I tend to get warm pretty easily so running in weather in the 60s and below is just absolute peak running weather for me.

I'd also like to give a shoutout to my friends I ran this 5K with. If you asked me before September 2025 if I wanted to run a 5K, I would've said 'eww no' but now, I'd probably say 'ayy let's run it!' Knowing I was running this 5K with them was a big motivation for me to train and to keep at it.

So yeah, run! Coming from someone that is as casual as a casual runner can be, it was absolutely worth the try and I'm happy I got into it.