My Imperfect 5K

Inspired by Christine Kane’s post on Allowing Imperfection, I signed up for a local 5K that started about a 1/2 mile from my house. Our local Panera Bread was hosting the race to raise money for the Food Bank of the Rockies.

My rare training runs for the upcoming half-marathon have been slow, generally an 11 to 12 minute mile pace. I have not been committed to training for the upcoming half and really needed something that was more fun. The nice thing about shorter races is I can get my husband to do them with me.

So off we went this AM. The morning was cool. There were only a few hundred participants at most. The race started on time. My big goal was that I would treat this as a race and run it hard. I knew my husband would be running up ahead. This was my first 5K.  I loved that by the time I felt like the running was hard and I was getting tired, the race was over. I still had plenty of energy to sprint to the finish. I don’t have my official time, but I know it was under 30 minutes (29:xx) which for me, given how little I’ve been running, is simply outstanding.

I need to do more imperfect training. Many mornings I find that I do not start because I do not have the time or motivation to do the complete workout on my schedule. So I do nothing, which I know is worse. And so, moving forward, I feel compelled to commit to imperfect workouts. Perhaps I will only do a single set of each exercise. Perhaps I will only run for 20 minutes and not 45 to 90. I need to find the fun again and my daily commitment. I feel and look better when I do.

Update: Race Results are here. I was bib # 308 finishing in 29:47 at a pace of 9:35 min/mile.

Summary:

• number of finishers: 253
• number of females: 148
• number of males: 105
• average time: 00:33:04
• bib number: 308
• age: 39
• gender: F
• overall place: 123 out of 253
• division place: 18 out of 50
• gender place: 53 out of 148
• time: 29:47
• pace: 9:35

I could not find my husband’s bib #113 on the results page but I know that he finished before me.