Rexona 5k race :Personal worst

Today at 5 p.m. I raced the Rexona 5k race. Last week I was going to race a 5k, but it seems that they cancelled since I did not see it in the calendar anymore last week. Luckily, I just watched in the calendar that today was the Rexona 5k, and I decided to run it.

This is a new event and I think that they did a pretty good job, very organized and the logistic was great.

During the day today, I even considered not running the race, I knew deep down that I am not in shape to race, nor my weight of 193 pounds is adequate to run a race also. But I had registered already and I needed to get it done.

As I said yesterday, I was not going to be surprised if I saw 26 mins on the finishing clock, but deep down I wanted to run faster than the 25:10 that I ran in May.

I warmed up around 1 mile, and was feeling pretty good, then We waited for around 10 mins in the starting line before taking off, the horned sounded and I went out at a good pace, harder than I should, but I only realized so in the first 400s when my breathing was at 1000 per hour that early in the race.

I was feeling tired, but strong till the 2k mark, after that the wheels just came off, and I just wanted to run " hard" the first half of the race and in the back half jog easier or do what I could, after turning back in the half I poured myself with water and was very tired already, I just decreased the pace till around 1 mile to go, a guy gave me words of encouragement and I sped up again to stay with him, could not catch him, but I was just around.

In the last 400s my brother was there and like in my last race He ran with me from 400s to go , to the 200s to go mark, I was rolling at a good speed there and did everything I could to not fade so much, I just watched the clock ticking the 25:12, I said to myself, oh my god, I need to really speed up if I want to be sub 26 mins, I just increased effort a bit, but with 80-100s to go, I just looked behind and a young kid was flying sprinting hard just 5-10m behind me, and in that moment I just put myself in sprinting mode too, I just opened my hands and was swinging like a sprinter, the knees were as high as they possibly could, I did not want that kid to pass me in the final stretch, I swong hard up to the point that I almost eat dust because my legs got very weak, but could regain my composure, the guy passed in the finishing line, but I battled the best I could and gave the crowd a very good time to cheer us and encourage us.

I crossed the line in 25:57, but the chip time said 25:53. That is my worst time in the 5k, but eventhough I have been consistent with my running, I am not really training, I am just jogging around for 40-45 mins and thats about it.

For a 5k, you need to train all systems to really muster a great race. Another thing is the weight, how can I race my old pr`s or close to them if then I weighed 140-150 pounds and now I am 193 pounds, no  way!!!  I need to lose weight and I am working on it ditching coke and only drinking on occasion, and I know that it will be a big change and a big benefit!!

All in all, I did not run that bad given my actual fitness, I have only run sub 5 mins in 1k once in the last 6 months, everything else is easy, so not really training, just running easy.

I think the first half was sub 8 min miles or sub 5 mins per km, I dont wear a watch when I race, but when the splits in the results are up, I ll post it!!

Anyways, what really matter is finishing time, not split times. But I think I went out much harder than I should given my actual conditioning!!

The weather was just fine and I got a lot of work to do!!