I've tried to lucid dream in the past but I didn't reach my goal.
Now I've been trying to do it, and i finally had a lucid dream yesterday night.

I was in a mall/hotel and i was slowly being chased by someone.
I was just walking down and up stairs at a steady pace to avoid this person.
Then all of a sudden I gasped, "I'm dreaming". then i continued doing what i was doing to avoid from waking up from over excitement.
the only thing, is that i did realize i was dreaming but I didn't take much notice or realize the full potential of my abilities and surroundings.
I did shake my head back and forth in order to get the person from chasing me (doing this changed my followers attitude, so they were not after me in a scary or violent way)

later I was starting to rerealize how amazing it was that i was dreaming, and i thought "am i really dreaming?" and so i started to shake my head back and forth to wake myself up. Halfway through doing this I realized that i didn't want to wake up and should continue dreaming but it was too late, i woke up shaking my head back and forth

my question is, does anyone else have lucid dreams where they become lucid but still are not "rational" enough to realize the weight of the situation? Is this common for beginners?