Lessons Learned from my 5K PR

I ran a 5k race this past weekend.

I was fortunate enough to run my fastest 5k time ever. So despite the handful of setbacks to training, I was able to perform for the race.

My official finish time was 20:37 - a lifetime personal record.

I finished 10th overall.

I placed 3rd in my age group, which was good enough to earn some hardware!

I'm obviously happy with the result to run a PR. I'm feeling terribly sore afterwards, which tells me I pushed myself to the absolute limit on the race.

Here are some the lessons learned from my race.

Trust your training.

The week leading up to this race, I wasn't able to get as many training runs as I'd like.

If I haven't shared before, but training while raising a young family is a challenge!

I even felt some doubts on my abilities on race day. Typical pre-race anxiety.

But once I got to the starting line, I reminded myself that all the work has been done.

All that's left to do at this point is to run and race smart.

So leave your doubts behind. Trust your training and go race.

Run your race.

When I lined up at the starting line I was next to much faster runners.

How could I tell? Well for starters few of the runners had on the Atlanta Track Club elite singlets on.

Second, just by looking at their shoes I knew they were serious: Nike Vapor Flys, Adidas Adios Pro 3s, Nike Streakfly, and Saucony Endorphin Pros.

On the gun start, I ran right with the faster runners for a few seconds, but I knew that wasn't a pace I could keep up with. Sometimes you want to get the jets going, but not for long.

I settled into what felt like a comfortable fast. I checked my pace on my watch and I was right were I expected to be, about 6:30 min/mile pace.

This was my planned pace.

Training runs with prescribed paces will help you learn what fast feels like. This way by the time you get to the race, the feeling isn't foreign.

Run the race that you feel comfortable with. Run a pace that you know you've tested in training.

Pain is temporary, PRs last forever.

My plan for the race was to stay at that 6:30 min/mile pace, but that at the final portion of the race to just gun it.

I saw the finish line cross my horizon and that was when I picked up the pace.

This is when all those fast interval repeats during training pays off.

The pain I experienced during this last push isn't an injured pain, but more like my body is screaming at me for being pushed to the absolute limit.

Legs burning. Lungs burning.

I knew the pain wouldn't last. I calmed my mind reassuring the brain that I'm not in any imminent danger.

When racing, leave it all out on the road and finish strong through the finish line. Pain is temporary but PRs last forever!

Thank you for reading! Catch you all next week. Happy running out there 😎