Peterborough 5k Race after only having been off the couch a couple weeks. Good idea? Probably not, Happy I did it? Definitely!
So only having been off the couch for a couple of weeks, but having had registered for this event the beginning of December, I was faced with a decision of whether or not to do the race. I had only been for one run that was 5k distance in the last probably 8 months, and last fall was having difficulty with the runs that were 2k long.
I decided to go ahead and run the race with my father-in-law and I am very happy that we both got out to do it. It would have been nice if my wife Lori could have joined me although see is just getting started on the working out this week and I started over 2 weeks ago. I think I have her agreeing to do a triathlon up near the cottage this summer though which would be sweet if we can do together.
Getting back to the race...
I wore my new Polar RS800CX Multi-sport heart rate monitor and it was a good thing that I did. My plan was to take it easy for the first half of the race, and then when I was confident that I was going to finish I could kick it up in the last couple of kilometres. It turns out that I had a bit of adrenaline rush for the first 1k and realised that my HR was WAY too high, I’m talking just below my maximum. I immediately slowed down but my HR never did not really recover (a good indication of just how out of shape I was). Needless to say that I didn’t pass many if any people for most of the rest of the race, and in fact was passed by many of the people I had passed on my quick start. I did attempt to kick it up during the last 750m or so which helped my HR jump above my maximum, although I thought I could hold that for the rest of the distance which I did.
My only other 5k jog during my workouts took me over 40 minutes so I was thinking I would finish over 30 minutes but was hoping for ~27 minutes.
I ended up finishing with a time of 25:23 which was a shocker for me, and I was very happy with the result. When I was fit, years ago and training for 1/2 marathons my 5k time was just over 22 minutes. Given my MS, conditioning, and now older age I am very pleased.
Till next time...
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