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Lionel Green's Experience running a 5K By Lionel Green - The Reporter Published March 09, 2010 I never ran a 5K before Saturday’s 2010 Hospice of Marshall County Walk/Race to Remember at Snead State Community College in Boaz. I assumed the K stood for kilometer. I discovered it actually stands for killer meter.

It was my fault. I didn’t train at all. I thought, “It’s just 3.1 miles. Who needs training?” It turns out the point-one part is easy, but the three part is the killer. I ran with my 15-year-old niece Lyndsey, who predicted she would leave me “in the dust.” I had just turned 41 on Friday, but I was feeling confident I could beat Lyndsey. I wanted to run the race to experience what I consider one of the best true community events on Sand Mountain.

For die-hard competitors, the course is USA Track and Field-certified. But most participants are not running to win, but running to support the worthy cause of Hospice of Marshall County, a nonprofit agency providing care for the terminally ill.

Many run to honor the memories of loved ones lost, and the race reflects a perfect balance of emotions, family and physical fitness.

Four goals

I set four goals before the race:

• Goal No. 1: Don’t walk. A mile into the race I decided not to accomplish this goal because parts of my body started going numb. I lost feeling in my calves. I realized my arms went numb because one of my hands flopped up and punched me in the face. So I shook my arms out and held them to my chest the rest of the way.

• Goal No. 2: Beat Lyndsey. After losing sight of my overconfident niece during the first half-mile, I decided to let her win. It was the mature thing to do.

• Goal No. 3: Finish in 30 minutes. When I crossed the 2-mile mark and the girl yelling out times said, “25:35,” I changed my goal to finish below my age, which is 41. And yes, I made it. Barely.

• Goal No. 4: Finish the race. One out of four ain’t bad.

I’ll admit losing to Lyndsey definitely put a cramp in my style, but I had more painful cramps to worry about in my arms, legs and toes. Have you ever had cramps in your toes? That’s just awful.

The finish

When I finished, the pain was almost worth seeing the smiling face of Boaz building inspector Don Bouldin cheering on runners at the end, even though I knew he was smiling because he didn’t have to run 5 killer meters. But my favorite moment of the race involved a mom and a cute little girl running together in front of me. The mom said, “We’ll run to the end of the street.” The little girl replied, “Then we’ll walk … please.” The way she said “please” was priceless. I wanted to yell out, “Amen, sister,” but I was too out of breath and couldn’t speak. I was just so proud of that little girl for taking a stand against running.

Seriously, the 5K was special to me because I was able to spend time with my niece Lyndsey, although not as much as I wanted because she left me “in the dust” five minutes into the race. But it was my first 5K and her first 5K, and we started it together. Those memories only happen once in a lifetime. And thank God for that.