Well I did my 5K race yesterday morning, with a friend of mine from work. It was a fund raiser event for Autism Awareness, and it was held in a town close to where I live. I did the same event last year and did pretty well, but I didn't really run as hard as I could have, and I kind of just did it to do it.
This year, I didn't have much time to prepare, and I was only going to the gym about 1 to 2 times per week in the weeks leading up to it. So I didn't have high hopes for my upcoming performance.
Much to my surprise, I did very well, and ended up taking first place in my age group 30-39 (I know I'm old). The interesting thing is that I ran the 5K in 21:15, which is two minutes better than I have ever run one in. That's almost (if not) 7 minute miles, which I've never been able to do in my life, even when I was much younger and in much better shape.
On top of that, overall I was the 6th person to cross the finish line, and there were a lot of younger people there, so I was not expecting to do so well.
I apologize if it sounds like I'm gloating, but this is really a big motivator for me. The past few years I've been working out and going through the motions, but now I see that I can do very well in 5K races if I really try. I have another 5K coming up in May (a fund raiser for the Hospital I work at), and I think I'm going to start ramping up my workout regime to try to win that as well (I took third place in my age group last year).
I'm still really shocked by the whole thing, and I wasn't expecting to do so well since I have not been training hard, but who knows. I'm going to start my new training regime tomorrow after work, and I hope it goes well, and no old injuries crop up to haunt me.
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