5K run

My wife's work was sponsoring a local running event and strongly encouraging their associates and staff and families to participate. I enjoy running, and I've frequently run much further distances...but I've actually only raced that distance once, and that was in high school.

To add to my uncertainty, most of my exercising of late has been pacing back and forth with my daughter, not running. I've done some biking, some stroller-walking, and some pick-up basketball games, but I think I'd only been running two or three times since she was born in April. My hope is that once my son starts preschool (tomorrow, actually...yikes), then I'll have some chances to take my daughter out in the jogging stroller, but that doesn't help much when it comes to preparing myself for the race this morning.

So I had no idea what kind of time I might get. At my peak mileage in college, I always suspected that I'd be able to go 16 minutes pretty easily and with a few races to get used to the pacing, probably even faster, though of course that was just guesswork based on the pace we did on much longer runs. The pace I'd been going with the jogging stroller (and a 35-pound child), though again for further distances, would have put me at something closer to double that.

I'm a bit embarrassed to admit my time--it was no where near 16 minutes. I'd only just passed the 2-mile mark by about then. But it wasn't as bad as double either, and I enjoyed it. Hopefully I can do the kind of running I'm envisioning over the next few months, and then maybe I can try another race in November or so.

Comments

Lauren Michelle said…
Don't you have to train up for a 5K even at peak fitness? I remember my cousin going on about his training regimen so he could run one out west (could have been in CO, now that I think of it), and he's a triathlete in excellent shape. Maybe that was a 10K.

Anyway, you did better than I did... a group of us from the dorm went down to Wreck Beach from campus (a staircase 420 steps deep), and I about passed out on the way back up. I've never gotten dizzy climbing before--even got up to Neuschwanstein castle in June without too much difficulty, and that was a much further climb much further above sea level. Can't explain it.
Neil Richard said…
Running for fun/fitness and running for racing are two different mindsets. Aside from the mental training, there is some physical training involved. In high school I ran cross country for 3 years (our races were 5k). I'd average about 20 minutes or so depending on the course. But during practice, we'd run wind sprints or at least 4 miles.

Now that I'm an old man, I still like running. I can shut myself out of the real world and think. And being overweight makes running hard for me. I've set a goal to run a race next month and I doubt I'll be anywhere close to the 30 minute mark. Right now I'm on a 40 minute pace.

Just keep going, you'll get faster.
Daniel Ausema said…
Oh yes, I know all that...and yet... Like I said, this is only the second time I've raced this distance, but I ran track in high school and college, so I still (unreasonably, I admit) hold myself to the standards of the longer distance folks, or at least to something that wouldn't look too embarrassing when I tell them.

My older brother is still running sub-18, it looks like from a quick Google check. Well, actually he's training for a marathon now, so I don't think he's running any 5k's, but as recently as last year. I don't expect to do the kind of training to do that, but I'm hoping I can do enough to go, let's say 21 minutes. That's 4 minutes faster than yesterday...or actually a little less, since it took a while after the gun went off to get from where I started to the actual start line.

Neuschwanstein, huh? Did you climb up the mountain behind the castle? There were some nice views from up there, as I recall.
Lauren Michelle said…
You've been? Isn't it splendid? I think I liked Linderhof better, but poor Ludwig was a man after my own heart for sure. Drama drama drama.

We went to the bridge, which was uphill from the castle, but no higher up than that. Of course we only found out on the way down that there's actually a bus that goes right up to the bridge. Oh well, gets the blood pumping. I remember thinking it was hilarious that we had to get to the ticket counter an hour ahead of our scheduled tour time, because the hike can take some people that long.
Daniel Ausema said…
Yeah, I did the stereotypical whirlwind-around-Europe thing in college...or at least tour of Europe's scaffolded landmarks =) We didn't climb all the way up the trail, but it seems like we went pretty high. And I also remember a trail that went along the creek? river? behind the castle, which was nice.
Lauren Michelle said…
Have you been to Vienna? We got there a few days after Neuschwanstein, and all over there were little examples of organic architecture that made me think of you. This guy Hundertwasser designed an entire block of buildings with no right angles... the stairs were wavy, the walls and floors were curved, the sidewalks swelled, and everything was overgrown with plantlife (the idea was for the rooftop to be a sustainable demi-farm thing with cows grazing on it and stuff). It was neat as heck. I took pictures, but my sister swiped my memory card, so I can't get to them at the moment.
Lauren Michelle said…
Here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundertwasser
Daniel Ausema said…
I wasn't there, but I looked at the link--those are very cool. I love Gaudi's buildings, and these remind me of those, but they're not pale imitations by any means. Wow--I'd love to see them in real life. Thanks!