Since the beginning of May, Erica and I have been training to run a 5K. Some folks decided to hit Vegas on 7/7/07, others tied the knot (in fact, that’s where we spent our afternoon), we figured we should spend our morning running 3.1 miles.
There were about 200 entrants to the 6th Annual Harrisburg Senators 5K race. We were a bit nervous since it was our first official race. Erica, Jake, and myself arrived at City Island in Harrisburg at around 8am and picked up our racing bibs with our numbers. Most everyone there really looked like runners, so we decided to start off the race near the back of the pack so we didn’t get passed by everyone out of the gate. Our goal collectively was to all beat 30 minutes. Personally, I was trying to beat my best of 27’00”.
We decided to run separately from the get go, so that we would each run our own race. I started out behind Erica and tried to pace myself without going too fast. At about the half-mile mark i picked up my pace and caught up with her. We talked for 30 seconds and then i took off again. I hit the 1-mile mark just after 8 minutes and kept my pace up. Running with other people actually helped me because it gave me a reason to speed up at times. I would pick up my pace for 60-second spots to pass 3 or 4 people and then slow down again to my normal pace. I slowed down a bit after the 2-Mile mark to save some energy for the final half-mile, and then gave it everything i had at the end. The cool thing about the race was that it finished in the ballpark, so i sprinted down the third base line and passed the Official time clock at the 25’52” mark, my best 5K time ever.
Unofficially, i clocked the race with my Nike+ iPod thingamabob…though i was so excited about finishing that i didn’t remember to end my workout until about 10 seconds after i crossed the finish line. Here’s a screen shot of what the run looks like on nikeplus.com
Erica ran a 28’10” and Jake finished at 29’10”. I think it was personal bests for all of us, which is a good way to run your first race. I think we’ll all probably continue running and look for another 5K to run later in the summer. After all, now we have a time to beat.
