How NOT to run a 5km

Start out all guns blazing - it's a sure way to end up in a heap. I found this out to my detriment earlier this evening in the first race of a three race series I'm doing. The event is being organised by the local triathlon club and it's about a 5 minute walk from work, so I'd no excuses. I even skipped GAA training for it.

5km is a pretty tough distance - it's short enough that the aim should be to do it just under all-out effort. However, it does help if you know what your limit is!

Set off on todays race after warming up for a few minutes. Started off strong, as I'd good memories of the Reading Half marathon and lasting a fair distance with a good pace. Looked at the garmin at one point and I was in the low four min zone! Felt good and started contemplating my 20 minute 5km! What a fool!!!

Of course it was never going to last - according to the garmin & sport tracks it lasted all over 7 minutes (1.42km). As you should be able to see in the pic below, it was a battle to get to the end after that - short runs followed by rests - depressing stuff!

To mock me even further (I'm joking) there was also a kids 2.5km race which set of a few mins after the full 5km - I was getting passed by some of the youngsters before my first walk break - fair play to them - they were absolutely flying.

Anyways, my splits sum up this race nicely - 4.42, 6.01, 6.53, 6.25 and 6.09. Lesson learnt - the fable of the tortoise and hare comes to mind.