Francis Montesdeoca's Blog

On June 29th,  Carolina and myself decided to run the 7K Kleenex Race. We got an email from “Vivir Bien – KC” to sign up for the event.  It is important to mention that none of us has ever run before so we did not know what to expect, how to prepare or anything that has to do with it.

On Friday we got our numbers. Carolina was number 28 and I was number 51. We started to get worried because we thought there were not that many people and we had to perform our best (even though we had not practiced!) and secondly, we got uniforms for it so it was a legit race. We knew 7K was not that much but for someone who just does Yoga and Pilates, this could be very challenging.

The day of the race we got up at 7am. The weather was cold and unbearable (2 C). We didn’t know if we could drop our sweaters somewhere else so we decided to go very light. We were frozen on the way to the park. We rode the bus with one of the handicapped kids that were going to run the race, which was very exciting to find out that we were going to share the time with them as well. Once we got to the park, it was awesome!  There were around 1900 people running the race (which was a relief) and our company had a VIP tent for all their employees. We got a good start with fruits in the morning and we were also able to put away our stuff.

There was a lot of energy in the park. We started with stretching before the race and then we moved to the start line. The energy and the enthusiasm in the line was superb. We didn’t expect this feeling. Once the last 10 sec came everyone started counting and as soon as Zero was counted, everybody started running. We run 8 min per kilometer which for most of you could be like walking, but for us first timers, we are proud to say that we ran at the same pace for all 7K and got to the final line at 57 min.

I am very proud that I was able to compete and finish what we planned. Carolina couldn’t have been a better partner as we both did this together. Now I can’t wait for my next run and take this experience further, even a half marathon…. Will keep you posted!