Okay, I should have posted this a few months ago when I actually ran it, but I have been a little busy, better late than never, huh?
gf has been running, training for a 5k the past few months. one day she says offhand that i should go run it with her. me, taking this as a challenge, accept. What I then find out is its’ a month away(i don’t run that much) so i don’t have much time to train. 
posted a msg to t-mag, got some help, and started on my training. being i’m a wuss, i only started out at 1.5miles a few times a week, but by the time of the race, i hit 3.5 a couple times, so I knew i could make it.
went to the race, ending up running it in 26:40, not that great, but I was happy just to finish and, of course, beat my gf (not literally, in the race i mean) 
ran another one two weeks later and got a 25:36 5k, so i’ve been getting better, haven’t got much running lately, wanted to start more on the sprinting and getting faster.
as someone who always said ‘i could try to run a mile’ this has been a real confidence builder, as i can go out and run 2 or 3 miles easily(not fast, but still, i can do it) and one day even ran 4miles without stopping. i was pretty happy. 
some tips to pass along I found along the way:
-double knot your shoes
-get GOOD running shoes(shin splints went away after i starting using them)
-running seems very psychological, while running i found it easy to go faster, farther without stopping yelling ‘go’ or ‘stride’ or anything to be motivational(although i think my neighbors and friends i’ve told this to think i’m weird now, oh well)
Anyway, just wanted to tell my results and thanks to the people who posted in reply to my first post.
-dk