I ran my first 5K race on Saturday, the culmination of 12 weeks of training. I felt very confident that I could achieve my goal of running the entire way. In the end, I was able to do it, but it was way harder than I expected!
Here are some race day notes:
- It was cold! A cold front moved through on Friday, bringing the coldest temperatures in months and triggering a freeze warning Friday night. I never had the chance to train in cold weather. I did at least buy some cold weather running clothes, so at least I was prepared for that.
- I started out running way too fast and paid for it the rest of the way. This is a classic beginner's mistake, which I knew, and I still fell for it.
- My watch wasn't tight enough when I started running, so I had to adjust it as I ran.
- Later on, my watch face somehow changed, and I couldn't figure out how to get it back to normal as I ran, so I wasn't sure what my exact pace was.
- I almost ran the wrong way at one point. The course had a lot of twists and turns and forks. I was heading towards one side of a fork when I realized something wasn't right. I looked back, and fortunately there were a couple of runners behind me pointing to the right way.
- It was a hard course! Especially at the end. The last half mile was straight uphill. During the last mile, I seriously started to wonder if I could run the rest of the way. But I managed to do it. And I was completely exhausted when I finished.
- Before the race started, they announced that frost was covering the two boardwalks along the route. So be careful, they said! Fortunately by the time I got there, the frost was gone.
- Despite all of the above, I managed to finish with a time of 33 minutes, 53 seconds. That's my fastest 5K time so far! My pace was 10:56.
- Overall, I finished almost exactly in the middle of the pack, out of 55 runners.
- I got first place in my age group. There were only 2 other runners in my age group, and one of them was running with his 4-year-old son, so it wasn't exactly a competitive field.
- There was a raffle with various prizes. I won a free session with a local running academy which includes video analysis of my running technique. Cool!
After the race, we stuck around for another half hour for the awards ceremony. I received my medal for winning my age group. Then we went home so I could shower, and then back out for a much needed lunch.
Now that it's over, I'm following the advice from my training program and taking several days off. The animal shelter that we adopted Mr. Gordon from is having a 5K in early November. I'm thinking about doing that for my next event.