The first 5k are the hardest

I "ran" my first 5k today. That's 3.1 miles.  "Ran" because I walked a lot of it, probably more than was strictly necessary.  It was pouring, pouring rain.  It started with a slog down an unpaved road with 5-inch deep puddles, then up a decent sized hill, and then through residential neighborhoods with lots of turns around corners and up and down side roads.  Needless to say, I lost the field pretty early and found myself running alone.  I had real difficulty finding a good pace and my asthma was acting up after that first hill.  I got discouraged for a while and walked for a good bit.  Somewhere between mile two and three, I was able to jog with consistency and actually had a good pace going, but my last place finish was already secured by that point.  Toward the end, they had a guy in a truck following me, because all of the other people along the route who were giving directions had gone back to the finish line already.  There was a 10 mile race too, so everyone was still there when I crossed the finish line.  

My goal was to finish, and I did.  In 166th place, and about 10 minutes behind the next slowest runner. 

Oh well, I have a time to beat for the next one.

Things I learned:

I had not trained nearly enough.
The beginners typically do not come out for runs when the weather is shitty. 
Nor do cheering fans.
Asthma f**king sucks.
Jimmy Eat World "The Middle" is the best song on my running mix.  I played it three times because it was totally responsible for me finally finding a solid pace. 
Running in the rain sucks a lot less than running in the heat.
Hot showers feel goooooooood.