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:
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my time was under 35 minutes, ideally under the magical 30 minute line (not realistic)
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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)
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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.
The start was at noon. By then, the rain had gotten even stronger. The more we ran, the stronger it got. My face was dripping in water and I had no mascara left on my eyes (I thought some would be nice since there would be pictures taken… not one of my wisest ideas).
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.
You can watch a video summary of the race. You can see my back for half a second at 1:21 😀
Results:
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My official time: 32:22,4
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My RunKeeper time: 32:34
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Average pace: 6:25 min per km (fastest ever!)
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Average speed: 9,35 km/h
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My postition: 283rd (out of 300 that finished)
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My position among women: 113th (out of 124)
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In my agegroup: 55th (out of 62)
Tartu Novembrijooks was the last race of this season and also my third ever sports competition. Can’t wait to see what happens next year. I’m already planning my races and competitions… And I have interesting things coming up! Excited as hell for 2014 🙂
Nourish, Train & Flourish 