5K pre-race report

I wanted to let everyone know I finished the 5K. I'll leave the details for later because ... I don't know my time yet. haha. I forgot to start my watch and there was no visible race clock (very small race) so I'll wait until they get the results up on their website (hopefully soon) and do a full report then. In the meantime -

I'm gonna do another 5K this weekend: The Wee Little Virtual 5K

I'm supposed to do 3.5 this weekend anyway so I'll do a .4 mile cooldown to finish my training workout post-"race". Disclaimer: I am not actually racing (myself or anyone else) but having to post a time will keep me accountable for running the whole distance.


My "Wee Little 5K" Questionnaire:

1. When did you start running?
Mid-January (08). I started a few times over the last year or so, but finally got serious in January and have been running fairly consistently since then.


2. Did you follow a plan (C25K etc.) to get you started running? If so, what plan did you use? If not, how did you go about getting started?
I mostly did C25K, although I abandoned it around week 7/8 to do my own thing. I didn't have much use for "the plan" after accomplishing the first 25 minute run so I started working towards a 10K.

3. Why did you start running?
I study exercise as a career, and I felt like the outcast (and kind of an imposter) being one of very few non-runners in the lab. I've always wanted to be a "real runner" so I decided to give it an earnest try. And I'm getting very attached!!

4. Now that you are running regularly, what do you find to be the biggest benefits?
I don't know that I've seen a lot of benefits physically in either appearance or fitness (although I can certainly run longer, I don't know if I'm any more fit overall yet) but I just FEEL good about myself knowing that I can do it and I can talk about running with my runner friends and not feel like an idiot or a fake.

5. What are your future plans for running? Short-term and Long-range.
My immediate goal is to run consistently and continue to crank up the mileage. I want the 3-mile runs to come more easily. I want to decrease my pace to a 10:00 mile. My next tangible goal is a 10K in October. My current longish-term goal is the Indianapolis Mini Marathon in May, which is the weekend before I graduate with my Master's degree and I think will be the ultimate present. Long-long term I would like to run a marathon. I'm not sure I ever want to run more than one, but I want to say I did it. However, I'm not going to make that a concrete goal until I can realistically plan to run it in the 4:30 range (just over a 10:30 pace). We'll see how the Mini goes.

6. What are your personal goals for the Virtual 5K?
Not to walk (which I did during my 5K this weekend) and to beat my time (of course!) - my time goal is under 35:00 (sub-11:30 pace).

7. Do you have a music “theme song” that you will use for this race?
I do not - sorry if that's boring. haha. I just listen to whatever.