I ran my first race in over 9.5 months this evening. It was a local 5k that gets some fast guys every year. I warmed up for a little over 3 miles before the race started. I had the runs all afternoon and my stomach didn't feel the best but I was hoping that I would still be able to run well. The race started and I went out in the front pack of guys. My plan had been to try and hit about 5:00 pace, but once the race started I got excited and went with the guys on the ISU run club hitting the mile mark in 4:46. Shortly after the mile mark I started to fall back as the fast first mile was too much considering my fitness level right now. I struggled to maintain pace the most when the course went uphill, leading me to think that I am lacking strength right now and I may benefit from some time in the weight room. After about a mile and a half I also started to experience chest pains consistent with what you feel when you push too hard and overexert the muscles between the ribs. This highlights the aerobic deficiency that I still have, and also caused me to realize how unaccustomed I am to running at this effort level for a long period of time. This was the bigger problem of the two, as late in the race my legs still felt like they had more in them but I was being limited aerobically. Considering that I had not run a single mile under 5:00 all year until earlier this week I guess I should not be surprised. I hit 2 miles in 9:59 (5:13 mile), in 5th place but gaining on 4th who had dropped off of the front pack about a half mile after I did. I passed that guy and took 4th place only to be overtaken by another runner who was smarter and started off a little more slowly. It stayed this way until the finish and I covered the final 1.1 miles in 6:03 to finish in 16:02. My official time was 15:58.3. I am not sure where the discrepancy came from, but I will take the official time as 15:xx sounds a lot better than 16:xx. Overall I feel that this race gives me a good starting point to improve on as I move forward and continue to improve my fitness once more. | 