USA Fit 5K

Today was my 6th race in 6 months and I couldn't be happier with my result!

My last race was on Dec. 1st and I decided that I would dedicate the next 8 weeks to train for this race. Originally I wanted to be able to run the whole thing straight, but as time went on I realized that I wasn't able to increase my mileage fast enough and it honestly became less and less important. I decided to focus on just doing it as fast as I could. I hadn't done much running outside and my best treadmill 5K was 40:33. I didn't have a time goal but I was hoping to maybe get around 41 minutes.

My time was 39:22...a sub 40 minute race and a 12:40 average pace! Wow!!! My friend Rachel decided to do the race with me and she finished in 38:13 (12:18 pace). We go to the gym together so I knew she would probably beat me because she is a beast in the gym and has been running like crazy where I have done more cross training. If it wasn't for her though I could not have run as fast as I did! We started out together and I stayed with her for about the first 3/4 mile...we were running at like a 11:20 pace which was ridiculously fast! Not that I couldn't have done this pace myself, but it was unlikely that I WOULD have pushed myself at this pace for 3/4 of a mile. That is what makes Rachel a great person to workout with! :)

At that point I told her I would meet her at the finish line because I couldn't keep that pace, so I kept doing running and walking intervals. Since I have been trying to do all my walking at the gym at 4.0, I tried my best to stick to that. Run Keeper tells me my pace every 5 minutes so I was getting really excited when I got to mile 2 and was at 25 minutes...I knew I could get under 40 minutes!

Rachel and I were super proud of ourselves!

Here are a few pictures from my first two races:

The only thing bad about this race was that we had to walk a mile (literally) from a park that they advised us to park at (this race was part of a marathon and half marathon as well) so we 5K-ers could get out. After the race it seemed like a really long mile to get back to the car! At least the weather was awesome...sunny and in the upper 60s.

In 176 days since my first race, my 5K time has decreased from 45:46 to 39:22...I'm over 6 whole minutes faster and shaved 2 minutes off my average mile pace! I'm also down around 20 pounds since then. I'd call that success!

My February race is a 7K but I'm not going to kill myself on that one, it is more for fun...I want to focus on my March 5K in 6 weeks.

Until later, happy running!
Jamie