First (actual) 5K

I ran my first proper 5K race today (ie not one in a gym with me on a treadmill). The boyfriend also ran it, but we decided not to try to do it together (he's much faster than me and he'd get aggravated with me slowing him down and I'd be annoyed by him trying to make me go faster than I was comfortable with). We were really lucky in that the weather was great - cold, but sunny and bright.

My race number!

I was pretty nervous before it, just because I hadn't been able to run the course beforehand (because of the hip) and because I've never run an official 5K before. The course was also pretty hilly, which is different from when I run in the gym.

My goals for the run were:

1. To run the whole thing (not walking). I know I can do this in the gym, but I wasn't sure how I'd fare with the hills!

2. To finish in under 35 minutes.

Running was fine for the first few minutes (downhill!), but then got sort of tough. When I run I tend to find that the most difficult part for me is the part between about 5 and 15 minutes into the race. The end of the race was nice (ie flat!). I managed to do the whole thing in 27.11 mins, which is only slightly slower than my best gym-time (26.57 mins). I was a little peeved because I was so close to beating my best time, but it was a much tougher course than in the gym and I did achieve what I set out to achieve. I can 82/120, which I was happy with. Most of the people who were running were really intense runner types and so for my first 5K I thought that was pretty good. (The boyfriend came 24/120. Ridiculous :P). I also got a pretty awesome T-Shirt, which at some point I'll post a pic of!

My dad phoned after I'd just come back from it. I missed his call and had to call him back, and when I did I explained that I'd missed his all because I was running the race. His response was "I didn't know you did that kind of thing" :D. Made me happy, because it's me breaking out of my comfort zone!

Anyway, I think I'm hooked! I can't wait to run another race and hopefully beat my time!