By Randee Bergen

Without much effort on my part, I have found myself chairing a committee to put on a 5K race.

The PTA at my school started kicking around the idea last fall. I happened to mention, at one of the meetings, that I was on the board of the local running club, the Mesa Monument Striders, and could find out a lot of good information for us about timing runners, insurance, advertising, choosing a date that didn’t conflict with other races in the community and other considerations.

Shortly after my kind offer, I was holding a large pot and a recipe card with nothing on it except 5K: preparation time three months, actual cooking time two hours.

And now, I can feel the heat of a burner set to high.

I must say that I did take the pot and the recipe card willingly. Though I have plenty of other commitments, I will move them to the back burners for a while to simmer. And I’ll stick a few others in the oven to keep warm. Organizing a 5K race sounds like a lot of fun. A small race like this is all about the kids, their families, the joy of moving and building community. How could it not be fun?

(I say that now.)

Since we’ve never held an event like this at our school and since I’ve never been involved in planning a race (let alone taking the lead), this 5K will be produced (almost) from scratch. I say almost because my experience with running several 5Ks will help tremendously in thinking through the hosting of one. The first night that I felt the heat, I awoke at 1:30 a.m., realizing I needed to start listing my ingredients. Now. The burner is on high, the blue flame visible, licking the air, in my face, because the pot is not yet on the burner, not yet on the burner because there’s nothing in it, nothing in it because I hardly know, at this point, what’s required, nothing in it because I’m just starting to train, just starting to think of a long list of ingredients and preparations, a long list that does not yet exist.

By 2:30 a.m., I had a three-page planning chart.

Me? Cooking? Cooking from scratch? Who’d have thunk. What I know at this point is that I want my 5K to turn out way better than most of my cooking endeavors have. Thank goodness for the great team of ancillary cooks – fellow teachers and parents – who will be in the kitchen with me.

If you’ve ever thought about running or walking a 5K (3.1 miles), you might want to put this on your calendar. Our 5K will be held on Saturday, April 19, at 8:30 a.m. at Lincoln Orchard Mesa Elementary School. Preparation time: 3 months – just the right length of time to build up to a 3.1-mile walk or run!

You know what I’ll be doing during those 3 months. Preparation!

For more information on the race, please click here.

Randee Bergen is a single mother of two teens and an elementary school teacher. Read her Fridays on Healthy Mesa County.