Fall Into Fitness 5K

I ran my final race of the year Saturday. It has been a long racing schedule for me. It spanned 10 months and included 24 races. The most I have ever done in one year.

The weather was nice, but cool. It was right around 40 degrees. When the race started, I was behind a group of young boys who were running as fast as they could. After a half mile, they got tired and that is when I got around them. Once past the young boys, I was running alone.

The first mile was great. I was holding a great pace and passing people. I ran the first mile in 7:58. For the entire first mile my hands were numb. I pulled my long sleeves over my hands and warmed them up. I should have thought of that at the beginning of the race.

The course led us down into a park during the second mile. I was behind a group of people. I started passing them. I passed all of the runners that I followed into the park. I think it was a total of seven people. Once I was by the others, I was running by myself again. I passed the second mile in 16:26. I was excited. One, my best two mile time in high school was 16:20 and I was on PR pace. I thought if I could keep this pace, I could run a sub-25 minute 5K.

I kept my pace up. I thought I was holding on, but I wasn't. I was slowing down and I didn't know I was. I didn't want to lose any time by looking at my watch, so I kept going. I used a huge downhill to pick up some speed. I even surged a couple of times, but it didn't help. A block away from the finish line, I heard footsteps behind me for the first time. Someone was coming up fast on my right. When the runner passed me, I couldn't go with her. I tried. But I was already going at my top speed. I finished in 25:32:56. I missed running a PR by 32 seconds.

Even though I missed a PR, I was pleased with my effort. I was happy with my pace for the first two miles. If only I could hold onto that pace, I would have the perfect 5K. I plan to work on my speed over the winter. I will continue running intervals, hills and tempo runs. I want to run tempo runs on their own. Now I mix them into my long runs. I plan on running a shorter tempo run on its own. That will help me improve my speed and turnover. With all of the hard work, I know I will reach my goal of a sub-25 minute 5K.