This past weekend I competed in my first 5K. That is about 3.1 miles. I had never done it before and thought why not?
The youngest age division was 12-and-under. It was a very different start than when I do the 1-mile races. The start was very very casual. They didn’t give any announcements, just all of a sudden a horn went off and tons and tons of people just started moving. There were a lot of people walking, pushing strollers… I was nowhere near the front and tried to just weave my way through all the people. I knew that my time wouldn’t start until I crossed the starting line, but I was excited to get going.
Once I got past the starting line, I took off. There were so many people to go around. I noticed as I ran by, I overheard several comments. Someone said, “Hey look at that little guy- good job buddy!”
Another man pushing a jogger said to his baby, “Wow look at this kid, I hope you are like that one day.”
Several people just said, “Way to go, kid!”
I thought that was nice.
The track had several cones so I knew exactly which way to run. After each mile, they also had an announcer tell you the gun’s split time. After the first mile, it was 7:50. After the 2nd mile it was 14:25. I came into the finish at 22-something. My official race time was 21:10.
Somewhere during the 3rd mile, I saw someone ahead of me who looked like he could be in my age division. He looked 11 or 12. I decided to try to catch up to him. As I got very close, he saw me and started sprinting away.
I kept increasing my pace and about a minute later I caught up to him again and passed him. I thought he might try to catch back up with me so I kept my pace high but I wasn’t sprinting. He never did catch up. Later, I found out I placed in 2nd and he placed 3rd, 30 seconds after me.
Have you watched Secretariat? I saw it a few weekends ago. I sort of felt like Secretariat during that part. Secretariat comes from behind and then increases his lengths ahead of who he passes. That was such an inspiring movie.
Anyway, I had a blast at the race and hope to try one again soon.
There was a really nice man at the end of the race who said he felt awesome during his entire race and not a single person passed him, until I did. He wanted a picture with me. He was really nice 🙂