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After a somewhat successful completion of a Half Marathon, at work I connected with couple of my friends that were interested in running, Roland and Randall. One of them ran before a few years ago, casual running and in a couple 5K. The other, although doing some sport activity in his life, biking, soccer but not much running. We decided to train together for a 5k in October. Slowly we started to add more distance every week to ensure we will be able to cover the 3.1 miles. We ran once or twice a week together on workdays (either after work or very early in the morning) and then on our own over the weekend. Any additional mileage was a plus any other days in the week.
For Randall this was his first event that he trained for. He did a lot of research, got a GPS watch to track his performance and bought a MP3 player to make the time of the runs go fast. He was making outstanding progress. From mostly walking every 4 to 5 minutes to running most of the 3 mile distance. One thing in particular that he was looking for was the famous runner’s high that many others had talked or blogged about. Roland was looking to enjoy the training and runs and since he had done previous running events in the past he knew what it was all about. We talked about plans to do a 10k and a Half Marathon together.

We trained for about a month and a half and figure out that both of them were ready earlier than anticipated to tackle a 5k. So we signed up of an event in August, Run for Life, well in advance of the October main 5k event. We were able to trained at the facility/trails where the race was going to take place, which gave us a complete view and experience to start planning for the event. We went early in the morning, run the 5k and spend time talking about it. This was the first time that I was talking about strategy on how to tackle a route with others and adjusting plans based on the conversation and learning. Not only the talking but then to put the strategy and test different pieces of the plan in advance to determine if it was a good plan.
As for my performance for the event, it was ok. I finished around 30 minutes (29:45), so no PR on this races. I was feeling horrible by the second mile and was the 1st time I have to puke at the end of a race. In all learned a lot from the training and the race. As for my friends unfortunately for Randall the runner’s high was not what he was expecting and end up a little bit disappointed. The runner’s high was not so evident to him. I think there was an expectation of all of us finishing together when in reality we all try to push the pace to improve the times. But definitely he had a good time and felt good by being able to accomplish the 5k. Roland in the other hand was really happy with his performance and was looking to improve his time in the next event and for many many other challenges.

 

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Month/Year;;;{f1}Event;;;{f1}Location;;;{f1}Type;;;{f1}Time;nn;
Aug-12;;;WakeMed Soccer Park;;;NC;;;5K;;;29:45;nn;
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Event Highlight & Learning Points;nn;

Highlights:

Course:    Mostly wide trail with grass field. Plenty of ups and downs.

Weather:  Sunny and cold.

Goodies
and Expo: Cotton Shirt, No Expo

T1D:       Not paying much attention at this time, other than slightly on the high side.

Learning Points:

1. Be careful about what do you eat before an event, specially a fast one short one.
   
2. Running the course several times provides excellent information.
3. If running the course for several time, mix things out and try to push the pace at different points of the course. It will let you learn more about how you react to the route.

;nn;
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