Today I ran a 5k and I PR'd.
I've kind of been a little curious about the "personal record" since I mostly just get out there and run and sometimes I do well and sometimes I do OK and other times I know I could've done better. And I'm still in the "first" phase (first 20k, first half marathon, first marathon etc...) so, while I keep track of my times, I'm really thinking about finishing. I've run several 5k's and gotten better as I've continued to run them. I think I run/walked my first 5k at the lightning speed of 38 minutes and change. But today was different. After 12 weeks of speed training - it appears I'm actually getting faster!
We ran a 5k this morning. It was nice weather - sunny, 50 something, not humid, not windy - perfect. The course had an uphill start and a downhill end and it was pretty flat in between. I started out a little fast and pulled back in the 2nd mile to a longer stride so I could still cover as much ground but get my lungs back (I need to keep working on that). In mile three, I was tracking for a good finish if I could keep it up. A glance at my watch and some quick math told me that I could get this done in less than 28 minutes so I tried to convince myself that I could keep the speed up for 9 more minutes. You can do anything for 9 minutes right?
I came across the finish at 27:42. My fastest 5k to date had been 29:04.
There are still a lot of women faster than me. Unofficially I was in fourth place, but somewhere between the unofficial posting and the real deal, I slipped 5 places coming in 9th. Still - I wasn't competing with anyone but myself today. I challenged myself to try harder and I did.
Not too bad for a Saturday morning.
Setting a Personal Record - posted at Sat, 12 Apr, 14:14 Central
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