Emphasis on "rain". Today was my first official 5K in about four years. It was for a good cause, not too expensive, the weather was about 70 degrees, and I was meeting some friends there...seemed like a good idea.
It was humid, but not hot, and a little breezy, so felt like it would be a good run. My goal was 27:00, which is about 8:45 per mile. I was also hoping for negative splits.
What I ended up with was rain starting after the first mile and getting progressively heavier. I was completely soaked by the time I got to the hills. Yes, hills...from just before mile 2 through mile 3.
I didn't know if I could maintain a sub-9 min pace, but I did! I finished the race at 27:04. Started out a little too fast (8:04), then each mile got slower. But still, I'm happy with the results.
This is our group, pre-torrential downpour...that's me top right...
Sometimes it's seems like I'm doing this race thing backwards...my first Half in May, my first 10K in Jun, this 5K in Jun and another in July...but it's working for me. If I had done it in reverse, I would have run the risk of psyching myself out if one of my races went badly. If today's 5K was horrible, I'd know it it was just a bad run...instead of thinking that distance is too challenging, and potentially impacting my mental readiness for the next distance.
Admittedly, I did do some shorter races before the Half, a 4 miler in March, then an 8K in April (about 5 miles), but there is a certain confidence going into a short race knowing you've already conquered longer runs.
It was humid, but not hot, and a little breezy, so felt like it would be a good run. My goal was 27:00, which is about 8:45 per mile. I was also hoping for negative splits.
What I ended up with was rain starting after the first mile and getting progressively heavier. I was completely soaked by the time I got to the hills. Yes, hills...from just before mile 2 through mile 3.
I didn't know if I could maintain a sub-9 min pace, but I did! I finished the race at 27:04. Started out a little too fast (8:04), then each mile got slower. But still, I'm happy with the results.
This is our group, pre-torrential downpour...that's me top right...
Sometimes it's seems like I'm doing this race thing backwards...my first Half in May, my first 10K in Jun, this 5K in Jun and another in July...but it's working for me. If I had done it in reverse, I would have run the risk of psyching myself out if one of my races went badly. If today's 5K was horrible, I'd know it it was just a bad run...instead of thinking that distance is too challenging, and potentially impacting my mental readiness for the next distance.
Admittedly, I did do some shorter races before the Half, a 4 miler in March, then an 8K in April (about 5 miles), but there is a certain confidence going into a short race knowing you've already conquered longer runs.
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