My First 5K

This morning was my first ever 5K running race, the Leprechaun Loop put on by the Blue Water YMCA. It was an out and back run along the St Clair River in downtown Port Huron. I've never been much of a runner, but have been doing a lot more of it lately with all of my traveling. Running is easy to do anytime, anywhere. Plus with the dark nights and bad weather, running has been easier at home as well.

My buddy Chris came up for the race as well and stayed at our house last night. We got up this morning, had a light breakfast, then head up town around 8am. When we got there a group of Team Sandbag members had already gathered. We hung out for a bit, trying to stay warm, and before we knew it they were calling everyone over to the start. It was maybe 30 degrees out, probably in the upper 20's, but the sun was out and I knew I would warm up once we got moving. We had a good turn out from the team, Todd, John, Lee, Ben, Paul, Brian and myself.

I lined up with Chris and Lee, knowing we would set a slower pace. My typical pace is about a 10 minute mile so I figured about 30 minutes. The three of us ran together for the first half, passing some people, getting passed by others. Ben was way out in front, with John and Todd behind him a bit, then Paul and Brian, then us. Brian ran the 10K so he kept going, while the rest of us turned around and headed back.

Shortly after turning around Chris said he needed to pick up the pace to stretch out his stride a bit. I felt pretty comfortable so I told him to set the pace and I would try to stick with him. My tendency is to set into a slow plodding pace when running, but I would really like to develop a more fluid, longer stride. I was able to keep his pace all the way back, though I was feeling pretty tired about 2 miles in. Towards the end my second wind showed up a bit. As we approached the finish Todd and Ben were there cheering us on. Todd was running along side us telling us to sprint the finish so I picked the pace up. I felt surprisingly good so I held a pretty good pace for the last couple hundred yards. Not a sprint by any means, but good for me. As I passed the clock I read 28:10 so I'm pretty happy with that. Two minutes faster than I had anticipated. Makes me want to keep running and do another one.

Everyone else did great as well. Chris rolled in right behind me so that was great to run the whole thing together. Ben grabbed 1st in our age group, with a time of 19 something. Todd and John both placed 2nd in their groups with 21 somethings. Paul rolled in around 25 minutes and Lee crossed the line around 30 minutes, not bad for a guy who can't remember the last time he actually ran.