First 5K race report

Just got back from my first ever 5k: The "Last friday of the month 5K" at Hyde Park in London, fantastically organised by the serpentine running club.

The race was spit into 2 groups, a fast group, group A and a slower group, group B. Since it was my first race of this distance, I thought I should start in the slower group, in case I went out too fast at the start. Group A set off first, around 2 minutes before group B. I think that there were around 100-200 runners in each group.

Everything came together and I had a perfect race! My aim for this year is to run under 20 minutes for a 5k, and I managed 20m14s, pretty close to my goal, considering it was my first shot! My 1k splits were near perfect:
3m55s,4m07s, 4m06s,4m06s,4m00s. The gods conspired to ensure immaculate pacing. I was amazed when I checke. Perfect barefoot pacing. Wow!

Lesson learned: No matter how well you prepare, there are times when everything apparantly falls into place, without any reason.

As an added bonus, I caught some of the runners who set off in the fast race, even though they set off 2 minutes earlier. I placed second in the slower group after having a fun race with the guy who lead for most of the race - I caught him on the last 1k and he then regained first place in the final 100m or so....

I'm still on a real high, so I better sign off before I start talking real nonsense!

5ks rock!

Yanni.
Barefoot runner since December 2004.