30 x 30: #1 – Run A Sub 36:00 5k

Two down, twenty-eight to go! I didn’t think I would be crossing the physical ones off quite this rapidly, but no complaints from me! No idea what will be next, but probably not one of the physical ones.

To be completely honest, this was one of those that I knew for a fact I would get to, but I honestly thought it would be later in the year. I’ve kept at it and coming in under 36:00 was a bit of a surprise. This 5k was a part of the Fool’s Dual in Gloucester, MA and it was a beautiful course. My friends Hayley and Caroline (from my first 5k in December) signed up to run the half-marathon so Nick, Caroline’s fiancé, and I signed up for the 5k. We then convinced Caitrin to run the half-marathon and Dan to run the 5k from our trivia team to join us!

What was most exciting is how much of a surprise this was. I spent the week telling myself I would be able to break 36:00 this mark, but as soon as we were on the course I pretty much let that idea go. This was by far hillier than the last two races I ran (the same course for both) and I had to walk more than I walked for either of the last two! But apparently, when I was running I ran at a faster steadier pace, so that’s a big plus.

I hadn’t really given up on breaking the 36:00 mark, but I resigned myself to it being a close call and it really was! When I came around the final corner and could see the timer I had 20 seconds to definitely make it under the mark based on the gun time (I was 10-15 seconds behind the gun time) so needless to say I sprinted and crossed the line with 35:55ish on the clock and was thrilled!

As happy as I am with this—trust me, I’m still ecstatic and grinning about it—I am slightly disappointed. I’m still learning pacing, so I’m not really too worried about this, but I’ve already found that rather than leaving it all on the course, I keep A LOT in reserve. This really stood out to me after this race because within 15-20 minutes of finishing, I could easily have gone and done another race, probably still under 40 minutes. I really wonder how many more minutes I could’ve cut off if I went all out. Just from my first race, in December, to this race I’ve cut off 1:06 with 0:48 of those from the March run to this one.

However, I’m not going to end on a downer because I’m still super excited to have done it! And what this really means is, as I’m working towards the 10k and half-marathon on my list this works to my advantage because I’m already storing energy for longer races 😀