5Ks are like buses…

….None for ages and then three come along at once.

This month has been a bit of a 5K frenzy for me.  First I ran the ODU Big Blue 5K, which I had also run last year.  It was another awesome day out.  Last year I finished it in 28:17.  This year I managed to knock off over two minutes, to finish in a time of 26:13.  I finished 6th in my age group, 68th female overall and 294 overall, out of 2091.  I was really pleased with my progress over the past twelve months, but a little grumpy that I still couldn’t get a finish time with a 25 at the start of it (even with a 59 at the end).  I had been gradually improving my times but still couldn’t quite get there.

Next up I ran the Surf’s Up 5K along the oceanfront, this time as part of a team.  The conditions were perfect on the day.  I dispensed with my usual logic and tactics of trying to pace myself, and just decided to run as fast as I comfortably could for the whole race, to see what I could do.  Well, I managed to finish in 25:35!  I impressed myself, but also kind of annoyed myself because I had improved so much since the ODU race that I thought I had peaked and now had nowhere else to go.  I got 3rd place in my age group, and my team won 2nd place overall for our combined performance!

Today I ran the Spring Fever 5K.  Having only run the previous race four days ago and done so well, plus having an atrocious run yesterday in the ridiculous heat and humidity, I didn’t expect to do so well today.  Yet again, however, the weather was pretty good, bright and sunny but a little breezy.  I decided to just run like hell again without really pacing myself.  Well, I got to the one mile mark and this happened:

and I decided that I didn’t care how well I ran the rest of the race, I was just so happy to finally run a sub-eight minute mile 🙂  In the past I have only occasionally managed an 8:06 (my previous best time) or slightly slower pace and that is only when I’m running one mile and then stopping.  Well, my average pace for the whole race today was around 8:06.  That’s right, not just one but three-and-a-bit miles at that pace!  So you can work out that I did actually manage to break my own 5K record today – with a finish of 24:58!!  I never thought I would ever actually see a 24 at the start of my time.

I came 3rd in my age group (third again!!  Even having taken four minutes off my 5K time since my first trophy last year, I still can’t get 2nd place!).

I’m quite pleased that I have no more 5K races for a little while now.  The heat and humidity is just starting to increase here so my times will be ever increasing from now until about September.  Plus I have to concentrate more on my longer distances now, as I have a 10 miler, 10 K and Half Marathon to compete in very soon…..

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Shamrock Weekend 2015

I was looking forward to Shamrock 2015 because last year’s event was the first large organised race event that I had run.  This year, not only did I already know what to expect, but I had the opportunity to see how much progress I had made in the last twelve months and to see whether I could improve on my finish time.

So I ran the 8K race.  Last year’s finish time was 48:29, and I finished 146th in my age group and 2200th overall.

This year I finished in 44:34, almost four minutes faster 🙂 .  I finished 51st in my age group and 1416th overall.  So I’m very happy with those results!

Meanwhile Stateside Husband went one better.  Not only did he run the 8K on the Saturday (very graciously slowing down to keep pace with me) but he went on to run the half marathon on the Sunday too, thus completing the Dolphin Challenge.  Oh, and did I mention that he finished the half marathon in 1 hour 34 minutes?

I got a bit caught up in all the excitement of race weekend and somehow managed to sign myself up for two half-marathons for this year.  One in May (so I’m fully into the training now, with a couple of 8 mile runs under my belt), and another at the end of November, so I can restart serious training after the heat and humidity of summer have gone.  I’m not going to be quite as fast as the husband, and he has promised to pace me again as this will be the furthest distance I have ever run!  I’ve been really happy with my progress over shorter distances, having recently broken my own records for 1 mile, 5k and 8k distances, so it’ll be a new challenge to slow my pace down and go long distance instead.