Queue the "Pomp & Circumstance"

So I completed the Couch to 5k program a couple of weeks ago, but I'm not sure I can call myself a graduate. I have not run a full 3.1 miles as of yet. BUT, I have been running around a nearby lake quite regularly, which happens to be about 2.94 miles. Close enough? I think so. ;)

My first official running 5k will be the Torchlight 5k later this month. I'll be running along-side several friends and I'm absolutely jazzed! I wanted to run the race when I first heard about it, but knew I wouldn't be quite ready for its originally scheduled date in mid-July. As fate would have it, it was rescheduled for a month later due to excessive heat. YES! It looks like a really fun course along the downtown Minneapolis stretch of the Mississippi; down one side, across the Plymouth Ave bridge, down the other side, and then across the beautiful Stone Arch Bridge to the finish line.

We are so blessed here in Minnesota with many gorgeous places to run. Minneapolis is a city of many lakes, rivers and streams with winding paths along them. We are a city dedicated to fitness, as is illustrated by many national studies, and so there are races to be found somewhere in the metro nearly every weekend of the summer, many weekdays, and even throughout the bitterly cold winter. Crazy? Maybe. Hardcore? You betcha!