I was really surprised that it was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. On Thursday I took a practice run on the course just to see what it was like and what to expect, and it went pretty well, although not as easy as I had hoped. Then on Saturday I talked with a client about the race and what to wear, whether or not to bring my headphones, and other bits of info. She said I wouldn't want my music, that with all of the other people around, it would be a distraction. My gut told me not to listen to her, but I did anyway.
During the first mile, I was really missing my music, and when I saw the clock at the marker, I was appalled at how slowly I was running -- it read 14:30. So I picked up the pace. I am not a 14:30/mile runner! The next couple of miles actually flew by pretty quickly, and when the finish line was in sight, I peeked at the clock, and it said 34:20. I decided that I was going to finish before 35 minutes if it killed me, and I sprinted to the end! It was a fantastic finish to a pretty good first race.
On my way to brunch a little later, I passed by the running store that sponsored the race, and they had the results posted outside. It took me a good 10 minutes to find my name. I was looking at all of the runners in the 34 minute finish slot. As it turns out, my real time was 30:58! I totally forgot that it took me about 3 minutes to reach the starting line. My average ended up being 9:58/mile, my fastest mile ever!
Overall, I am extremely pleased with my performance -- so much so that I already registered for my next 5k race on Thanksgiving day and I have decided to start training to run a 10k next. I just never imagined I would like it so much, and I'm really grateful to the creators of the Couch-to-5k program. I never could have accomplished this task without it.
Finished Goals: 64/101
Days Left: 376
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