I signed up for the SL Running Co. 5K to celebrate their new store on 7th East (about 2400 South). The race was free and I thought it would be fun to finally try a 5K. This was only my third race ever and my first 5K. It was definitely different than anything that I have been doing recently and I learned a lot.
I have not been practicing running a 5K distance and especially not fast. I just wanted to run as fast as I could without hitting a wall. I have not been doing any speed work at all and it showed. I did do a short warm up before the race started and I was feeling pretty good.
There were several hundred runners. I am not sure exactly how many, but they filled 1000 spots, although I would estimate about half of that actually showed up. They did give out free Brooks running shirts and they wanted everyone to wear their shirt, so it was kind of cool to see all of the white shirts. The race was an out and back on 6th East behind the store.
I was near the front at the start and I was actually in the top 5 runners for the first .7 miles. I looked at my watch and I was running a 6:00 minute mile, but I was already starting to get tired, so I knew I had to slow down. I ended up running the first mile in 6:50 and I was still in about 10th place.
Mile two was a lot harder and my lack of preparation was showing. I was trying to run fast, but I was tired and wished I had done at least some speed work before attempting to run a fast 5K. At the turn around point I counted 20 runners ahead of me. The next mile was hard and I just tried to keep a steady semi fast pace and not get passed by too many people.
The last .5 I picked it up and was running sub 7, but I couldn't sprint in like I wanted to. This was harder than I thought it would be and I am a little disappointed with my time, but I learned a lot from this race and had a FUN time anyway. I definitely want to do another one and shave at least a minute off of my time.
I finished in 32 place. Not bad, but there were a lot of weekend warriors out there.
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