How It Felt To Hula Hoop 5K
Three days ago myself and two others hula hooped our way around the Race for Life 5K course in Falmouth for Cancer Research UK. And we absolutely loved it!
Beforehand we were all a little apprehensive. Not sure what to expect, not sure how difficult it would be or how long it would take us. I had done some walking with my students in class in the weeks running up to it, but nothing anywhere near 5K! I really wanted to keep it on the waist for the whole time but had set it up to allow myself to go onto hand hooping or off body tricks if I needed to. But my personal challenge was to keep it on the waist the whole time.
It all started a year ago when a new student suggested ‘wouldn’t it be good to hula hoop the Race for Life’. Sadly she wasn’t able to join me but I went for it anyway and thankfully I wasn’t on my own. It would have been a different story on my own.
The first kilometre was the hardest. I actually thought to myself ‘I’m not sure I can do this’. It was really tough, I was out of breath and struggled to find my rhythm. But then I found my rhythm and the encouragement from the crowd was great. We got asked a lot “Are you going to do that the whole way?” People were loving it and cheering us on.
Oddly I found going uphill slightly easier. I don’t know why. Doesn’t make sense to me and the others certainly didn’t agree.
I always encourage my students to practice everything in both directions and for once I listened to my own advice and changed which way I hooped every 10 minutes or so. I definitely think this was a blessing as I didn’t feel too sore the next day. Tired…but not as sore as I expected it to be.
What I didn’t expect or think about was how tired my arms would get! I hadn’t thought about the fact we would have to hold our arms up and out of the way of the hoop the whole way.
How long did it take? I don’t know exactly as I forgot to look at my watch but somewhere around 1 hour 15 minutes. That’s a lot of hula hooping!
How did I feel after? Just phenomenal! Didn’t stop smiling the whole way round. I don’t think I’ve ever won a medal in my life and it felt great! (Even though we were last). But the point was to complete it, not to win. In fact the winner passed us on his way back in as we were near Castle Beach – just over 1 kilometre in.
Did I drop it? Twice. And both times were when I was hooping in my wrong direction. So I’m very proud of myself. And still buzzing from it. If you're thinking about doing something that will really challenge you, my advice is to just do it. Sign up for something right now, whilst you're thinking about it and just make it happen. If you never sign up, you'll never do it and you'll not get that buzz and sense of achievement that makes our lives worth living.
Thanks to everyone who supported and sponsored me. If you’d still like to sponsor me I’ll keep the donation page open for the rest of the week:
Cancer Research is such an important charity to support. We all know someone who has been affected by cancer in their lives. Every penny counts. Thank you.
