The last race of this year was on the 23rd of November 2013. It was a 5K run at Tartu Novembrijooks (Tartu November Run). Prior to the race I got a little nervous but I really didn’t have time to think about too much since I was busy with school etc. But when Heidi made a post about her goals for this race on her blog I got to thinking what my goals were…

Friday night I figured that it would be pretty nice if:

• my time was under 35 minutes, ideally under the magical 30 minute line (not realistic)

• my average pace was at least under 7 min/km like in Tartu Tudengimaraton 10K, ideally under 6 minutes per kilometre (unrealistic, my fastest ever 6:52 min/km)

• the weather was nice

That was pretty much about it for my goals or dreams for that race.

I woke up at 8.30 AM. On Saturday the weather was OK: really foggy but no rain which made me so happy. I ate regular breakfast, nothing special. Then I decided to walk to the race place and back, it was about 4,5 km there. Not so bad. I left my house at around 10 AM and got there around 10.45 AM. Waaay to early. I jut had to stand there, be bored and get cold. And as a not so pleasant surprise, it started to rain a little.

 

Regular breakfast: 3 eggs, bacon, sesame seeds and cheese. Plus a large chuck on raw cabbage.

First kilometre was pretty good, I was fast (6:01 min/km). Then the second and third kilometres were also pretty decent, still fast for me as my average pace at those points were 6:22 min/km. At the end of the 4th kilometre my average pace was 6:21 min/km.

God knows what happened then but at the end of the race my average pace was 6:26. That means that I must have slowed down without even noticing it.. The splits show that I was indeed slower at 6:38 min per km but note that it’s still fast for me! 

Overall results were great actually. I can be satisfied with myself because I managed to get my fastest average pace at running and I felt good after the race. I even felt I could have pushed myself a bit more and probably gotten under the 30 minute mark but well… It didn’t happen this time, maybe next time it will 🙂

This race showed me that running shorter distances can be fun and useful. I should try running under 5K distances more often and try to get my speed up. It’s a nice change to my regular 7–10 kilometre runs.

After finishing we quickly took a picture with Heidi and then her friend gave us a lift to town again. I originally planned to walk but I was soaked, started to get cold and was actually happy I didn’t have to walk another 45 minutes.

Results:

• My official time: 32:22,4

• My RunKeeper time: 32:34

• Average pace: 6:25 min per km (fastest ever!)

• Average speed: 9,35 km/h

• My postition: 283rd (out of 300 that finished)

• My position among women: 113th (out of 124)

• In my agegroup: 55th (out of 62)