My first 5km 'race'

Months ago I would have scoffed at the idea of entering a 5km event, when this distance was pretty much an 'everyday, easy' distance.  However, months off from running certainly gives you a bit of perspective, and I was excited to enter the 5km portion of the Feilding marathon event this past weekend.  

My friend Sonia was running her 7th half marathon there so it was a good excuse to catch up with her and support her too!

Me and Sonia a little while before she started her race

I'd only just gotten up to the 5 kilometre distance, so the plan was to just have fun and finish with a smile.  I was wary of starting out too fast and possibly injuring myself, so I had a pacing plan for the day:  Start off at 6 min for the first kilometre, then try and run each subsequent kilometre 10 seconds faster.

It was a pretty small field for the 5km.  The gun went off, and so did all the wee kids and teenagers.  I settled into a nice rhythm near the rear, across the grass (about 100m) then up the short sharp hill for the first long straight.  It was a fairly mean headwind, with a little drizzle, but altogether not too bad.  A couple of road crossings, a few sweeping corners with nasty camber, then I was at the turn around point already!  

The second half was awesome, with a net downhill (gradual) and tailwind.  I started picking off runners as I went, which is always fun.  Just another reason to plan negative splits for a 'race'!  I had the watch set to show 'average pace' as a feedback to see how I was going. It was dropping gradually as I ran which was encouraging.

Finishing on the grass was hard work but I tried to put a bit of a sprint on to finish strong.  28:11 on my watch and I was thrilled.  Faster than I was expecting and a new record for Terry's watch:

Hubby's watch is awesome! He hasn't been able to use it yet, so I have the records on it!

I connected the watch data to my phone to look at my splits, and was extremely happy to see that I'd achieved what I'd set out to do:

Nailed it!

A quick drink and photo at the finish, then it was time to go and meet my family at McDonalds for a coffee and something to eat.  Hubby and the big boys went off to the Steam Rail open day, and I took Mr 2 back to the park to watch Sonia finish her race.  So proud to see her finish strong, 7 half marathons is pretty amazing!

All in all, it was a great day out, and I was on a bit of a high for the rest of the day afterwards.  Can't wait to work torwards the next event, probably a 10km.

So excited to be back!