I finally ran my 5k race.  Officially, my time was a shade over 26 minutes.  But, I was lined up in the middle of a couple thousand people, and for the first minute we just kind of shuffled towards the starting line.  Then, the first quarter or half mile was spent jogging at a slow pace in the crowd because there was no room to open up your stride or move at your own pace.

I lined up at the marker that said “25 minutes,” so I figured the people around me would be trying to move at a decent pace.  Now I know to move up a bit in the pack.  I might not finish in 20 minutes (although by next year I hopefully will be better than that), but at least I can get out at a decent pace and get a more accurate time.

Nonetheless, it was a fun time.  I took a week or two off afterwards – finishing up a ton of work for my classes at Rutgers – but now I’m back in the groove.

The other day, I did some speedwork at the lake.  I want to get a feel for the faster pace that I want to run for the 800m, so I ran 4 x 200m at around 35 seconds.  The first one was quicker (~31 seconds), and the next three were all around 35-36 seconds.  I was happy with the workout, and I finished up pretty tired.

Today, I went out for a 5 mile easy run.  I didn’t time myself, but it was around an 8:30 pace overall.  I think I started out around 8:00 minute pace and slackened off closer to 9:00 by the end.  I want to get back in the habit of one longer run a week – 5 to 7 miles.  I’m not going to run any crazy long runs (8+ miles) like I did over the summer until next summer rolls around, though.