my first '5K'.

This afternoon was the Turkey Trot on campus. It claimed to be a three mile run, costing only a canned good donation to participate. We were on our marks and started the race at 5PM and I started my HRM. This was a tough one. It was more inclines than I was used to and I could feel myself going faster than normal just because I was running with other people. But I was really disappointed when I got to the 'half-mile' marker and checked my timer - 6:30. Wait.. what? Really? There's no way I'm running at a 13:00 min/mile pace when I'm pushing super hard and my HRM is telling me my heart rate is at like 90%. No. Freaking. Way. Plus a bunch of children were kicking my ass, it was very disheartening. So I just continued on my way and continued to be confused as to how my time was so shitty when I was working so hard.

My final time was 38:00 min/mile - a far cry from the 30 minute goal that I had set for myself. I truly felt that there was absolutely no way that I took that long to run three miles. Even at my slowest I'm sitting at a 12:00 min/mile. And this definitely wasn't my slowest. Roommate and I cooled down a bit and drank some water while I bitched about how something was fishy. So we get home and I pull up MapMyRun and... sure enough...

The freaking route was 3.74 miles! I feel much better about a time of 38:00 minutes for that distance. And it makes much more sense. Running a 10:09 pace is good for me, and sustaining it for almost four miles would explain why I was pooped.

So I'll consider my first race a win. Now for a shower and a turkey burger.