I ran my first 5K in 2 years and it was one heck of an experience! For the full recap I need to go through the lead up to the race. I left work promptly at 5 because my older sister, Rachel, was coming in from Boston at 5:30 into Reagan-National. She got off the plane already changed for the 5K race and we headed straight over to Crystal City with plenty of time for the 6:30 gun time. We went for a short warm up jog and then headed to the start line and did some light stretching, then just waited for the gun to go off.
I started off VERY undisciplined, and went WAY to fast! My original goal was to start at about a 7-7:30 mile and then evaluate how I felt and go from there, with a goal of finishing with the clock still on 21:XX. Well I felt like I was surrounded by people going really slow so I started bobbing and weaving and going at what felt like a comfortable pace. At which point I looked at my sister at one point and asked my sister what her Garmin said our pace was, her response, 6:16...at which point I realized I was definitely going at a pace I could not sustain. I slowed up a bit and thought to myself, well I have gone about 1 mile...I can slow up a little and let miles 2 and 3 come to me, then about 2-3 minutes later it hit me that I was just seeing the 1 mile marker, I was a bit fatigued and was only 1 mile in!
Well I just gave myself a chance to catch my breath with somewhat of an easier pace but tried to keep a decent temp. Mile 2 came a lot easier then I thought and I was noticing myself still passing people and as I got to mile 3 I just thought to myself, "just hold on" and see what happens. When I reached the 3 mile mark I did my best to kick it in and passed a couple more people, when I passed the line I had a chip time of 22:16, 17 seconds off my goal, but I was still happy with that result!
All in all I finished in 22:16 which comes out to a 7:10 pace, 123rd overall, and about 99th or 100th of all male runners, not bad for my first 5K in about 2 years! My only other 5K chip time was in the Crystal City Twilighter where I ran a 22:58. So I got a new PR and had some fun running with my sister in the process.
My goal is to train, doing some hill and speed workouts over the coming months and enter a race later this year and try to break 20...here's to trying!
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