I highly doubt there will be any in person races this year, so I signed up for a virtual race that took place during the beginning of this month. The UConn Health Half Marathon, 10K, and 5K normally takes place in person, and I’ve never run it before. So I figured since it was virtual this year, why not?

I registered for the 10K; you had the option to register for all three, but that’s crazy. The days during when you could run and submit your time was June 4 to June 7. My plan was to run 6.2 miles on that Friday and then run it again on Sunday and submit my best time.

My first attempt on Friday was…well…probably one of my worst runs yet. First of all, I decided to run before work at 7:00 a.m.—which I’ve never done before. (It’s not that big of a deal, though, since I’m still working from home so I won’t be late.) I was more concerned about the 30% chance of rain that was showing up the night before than the fact that it was probably the most humid morning ever. But I still said, yeah, I can go run a 10K this morning.

Nope.

I had a bad side stitch after 2 miles, and my asthma was bad. I had to call my mom to come get me. She jokes before I leave for my runs to call if I need her or my dad to pick me up; that was the first time she had to come get me. I made it to 2.5 miles before throwing in the towel. I made my way over to an elementary school parking lot so she could get me. I was really discouraged but I had so many things working against me that I shouldn’t have even left the house that day.

Saturday was my yoga morning, and then I prepared myself for Sunday morning. It wasn’t humid at all—yay!—and sunny and breezy and in the low 70s: perfect running weather. I knew I’d have to walk during it but I wanted to limit my walking time. I ended up breaking it up something like this:

• 0.0 to 1.5
• 1.65 to 3.5
• 3.65 to 4.5
• 4.6 to 5.5
• 5.65 to 6.2

When I walk, it’s only for a tenth or so of a mile; I was feeling a little slow around 4.5 but knew I was close to the end. My asthma was fine, and no side stitches. I felt good about the run. My final time was 1:11:38, which I’m cool with. I would have liked to have been a few minutes faster, like under an hour and ten minutes, but I’m sure it’ll come with time.

After I got home and showered, I submitted my time. We had to enter in the time and also send in a screenshot of my run from the app I use. I knew I wasn’t going to be first, and I knew there would be people slower than me.

The t-shirt and medal was mailed to my house and arrived a few days after the race was over. It’s a nice t-shirt and an incredibly nice medal for a virtual race. I feel like I actually earned it more since I did the 10K instead of doing the 5K, which I know I can do. I’m going to see if there are any other local virtual races to do because I’m going to keep running anyway, so why not get some swag while I’m at it?