Chargers 5K Registration is Open

You all remember (other) John's post about having the opportunity to run a 5K with members of BFTB, don't you?

Well, since then, John and I ran the Carlsbad 5000 together.  John did much better than I did, mostly thanks to me getting the cold from hell 3 weeks before the race, thus putting an end to my training. I kid you not, I got sick over 4.5 weeks ago, and I'm still trying to get rid of it. Being unable to go more than 30 seconds without coughing or being unable to breathe through one's nose tends to but a hamper on a person's ability to do strenuous exercise.

Okay, enough excuses. With one 5K under our belts this year, John is already hooked on running competitively and is pumped for the Chargers' Bolt to the Q 5k Run.  Since neither of us was very pleased with the results from the first race, we're going to ramp up our training.  Hopefully, come July 23rd, we'll be running machines and we'll each be able to complete the run like a boss.

What You Need to Know

The race is on Saturday, July 23rd at 7:30AM. Registration is open over at Active.com. Proceeds from this race will benefit Mack's Miracles, which is Marcus McNeill's charity that "improves the lives of children by educating them on leading a healthy lifestyle and fighting obesity."

Registration is limited to 2,500 participants, which means registration will fill up quickly. I've already registered, and you should do it too ASAP if you want to participate with us.  For the next two weeks, registration is only $25.  After that, it jumps up 32% to $33 until July 1st. Try to register after July 1st (if there are any spots available)? That'll be $38. So if you want to do it, you better go register.

You'll get a pretty sweet t-shirt for participating, and the finish line will be set up at the 50-yard-line inside Qualcomm Stadium. How cool is that? Not only that, but as you cross the finish line, you will be broadcast up on the jumbotron.

The race will start at Chargers park and take you along Murphy Canyon Road (and a couple other streets) before going into the stadium parking lot and you finish by running through the tunnel and onto the field inside the stadium. If you can't visualize it in your head, this handy-dandy map link should help you out.

Training

On the fence about it? Worried about motivation? Three-and-a-half months is plenty of time to train for a 5k, even if you haven't run in 15 years (or ever).  I've done the Couch-to-5k program in the past, and it works remarkably well. I used to loathe absolutely despise running in the past. But once I started training using an actual training plan, it was easy to stick to it and I saw improvement immediately.

Also, if you have an iPhone, Android or Windows Phone 7 phone, I can't recommend enough that you should pick up Runkeeper Pro. It tracks your runs using GPS, and you can load up your training plan into the app and it will give you audio cues. Trust me, you'll quickly learn you can't run without RunKeeper.

If you're on the fence about it, or worried you won't have the motivation to train, go ahead and register. You'll feel more motivated because you know you have an actual event coming up, and train harder and more consistently.

So get out there, go running! We hope to see as many of you out there running with us as we can get.