I woke up this morning and thought, “Let’s run a 5K today.”

I’d been hearing about the LUNGevity 5K for several weeks. I was supposed to run a half marathon today but, that wasn’t going to happen. I also learned that Cbusr had formed a fund raising team. More significantly, lung cancer had taken my dad away from me. Yes, I would run the LUNGevity 5K today.

On-site registration was set for 9am and, the race would begin at 10am. It was about 8:30 when I made my decision and got out of bed.

Let’s rewind the clock to Friday night. Normally, with plans to run the next morning, there would be zero consumption of alcohol. I need to take every measure to stay hydrated. Having no plans to run the next morning, I had no such restrictions on Friday.

Dehydration, thy name is whiskey.

Fast forward to Saturday morning. With a cramp in my leg and the barest hint of a hangover, I somehow decided to run. I quickly got dressed, grabbed a bottle of water and slipped out the door.

It was 33 degrees outside. Whose idea was this?

I parked at Confluence Park and, hoping to warm up, jogged over to North Bank Park where registration and the starting line were set up. Upon arrival, I registered under team Cbusr and made my own donation. Waiting for the race to start, I was pleased to see familiar acquaintances and meet new and wonderful people. Hot coffee helped me to ignore the chill in the air.

The race was a simple out and back along the bike path. By the time I crossed the finish line, I was no longer chilled. It was simply remarkable to me that I could do this. A year ago, I couldn’t run around the block.