New Years Day 5K

Here is my first ever race report other than to myself in my log. I ran a 5k race on New Years Day. First I just have to say I love racing. I may never win, in fact I probably won't ever win, but being able to compete with so many people of so many ages is awesome. In this race a 6 year old finished in 33 minutes and a 65 year old finished in 22 minutes. I am trying to keep some sort of racing on the books until my first tri in June. The weather was perfect. It was approx. 48 degrees, sunny, and very little wind. This took place in Fort Collins, Colorado. The race started a 10 in the morning, which I liked. The early ones require you to get up for some sort of breakfast so early. Anyway, there were approximately 300 runners at the starting line. This is my 3rd 5k and my previous fastest time was 27:13. I had been running 3 miles at just over 25 minutes in training so my goal was to break 26 minutes for the 3.1 miles.

The race started, and I need work being able to pace myself. At the first mile marker I was at 7:20. That is much faster than I ever had run and faster than I intended. My HR was already in the high 180's. I felt pretty good, but knew I had to slow my pace down some. I was able to do so by running with another racer for most of the rest of the race until the end. I ended up passing her. There were two other people I tried to pass but in the end I couldn't. I was able to have enough energy to finish strong and overall I broke my pr by just over two minutes at 25:12. So even though I ran a positive split, all in all it was a great day to be racing.

I will run again in Feb. in a 4 mile race. My biggest thing then will be to start out at a better pace for me and not try to keep up with everyone. Then try to run a negative split.