Just finished my first officially timed 5K in over a year. Went into it with some anxiety due to the following
1. Never ran the course before so didn't know what to expect
2. Lower back was still hurting from softball 3 days ago
3. Due to the recent cold wave, didn't do any real running in 2 weeks
4. Felt like I was coming down with a cold
Anyway, did a lot of walking before the race and some light stretching to warm up. Weather was beautiful and today was actually warm for a change at 45F.
Started the race at the back of the pack so that all the fast runners would be in front of me. First thing I noticed was that the course had a lot of hills. I trained mostly on a flat course so this was not pleasant as I had to constantly adjust my pace to not die and stop on the hills. Around the 2.5 mile mark, there was one more hill that I nearly walked it because my legs were on fire and my breathing was getting labored. Pushed on through it and at the last 200 feet or so of the course, gave a little extra burst of speed because I felt someone right behind me and wanted to beat him/her.
Official time was 32:32 for a 10:29 mile pace on a hilly course at around 253 lbs. A new personal record!
Went and looked at past 5K results and here they are:
33:00 for a 10:39 pace on a flat course at around 253 lbs (June 2013)
34:19 for a 11:04 pace on a flat course at around 270 lbs (Oct 2013)
So I went faster and on a more challenging course at the same weight and almost 1.5 years older! Gotta love that!
Race #2 is Thanksgiving morning.