My first 5k

After getting my feet wet (with mixed results) with a 3.5 mile run in June, I decided (at the urging of Courtney) to try another race. On Saturday, I ran my first 5k.

It was right here in town, so it's not like I needed to go out of my way. It wasn't a huge race, just 128 people finished, but I think I ended up liking that about it. I had three goals going in:

1. finish without walking
2. run 10 minute miles or better
3. beat at least 10 people (I really didn't want to be last)

I finished without walking and ran a 31:09 (slightly slower than 10 minute miles, but close enough for my tastes).

I came in last in my age group (20-29). I was 10 out of 10. The #9 guy beat me by more than 2.5 minutes. Though really, I was also the old man of the group. I beat a 31 yr old guy by about 10 seconds and I beat a 30 yr old guy by more than a minute in the next age group up.

There was a really old guy who looked like he could barely walk, but he stayed just ahead of me the entire race. I was kind of demoralized that I could never catch him. He was 74. Actually, all three guys that were 70+ beat me. I came in 55 of 67 guys though, so I did beat >10 guys.

I would have come in 30 of 61 women. I would have been 6 of 15 in the women's group of my age. So combined, I came in like 15th of 24 people in my age group. Sure, I only beat women, but that's not all that bad.

Overall, I came in 84 of 128. I beat 44 people. I'm okay with that for my first 5k. In fact, I am so okay with that, that I think I am going to try to run a couple more this fall. Though we'll see how that goes.

Mike