First Time 5K-er

ehju0901

So I am debating on participating in a 5K soon. I have never done one, and I know I can participate as long as it is a walk/run/etc. I am not a runner, but I can definitely participate if it is walking.

Any tips for a first timer?

I am looking into making a trip out of it...traveling to another state, finding some other things to check out. As of now, I plan to go by myself.

Jthanmyfitnesspal

If you can speed walk (whatever that means to you) 3.1 miles, then you're good! I'm a slow runner, and I've done a number of them, always finishing at the end of the pack. One of them was a cancer fundraiser, and my wife was 1 year post-treatment, so she did it too at her own pace, which at that time was about 20mm or something. She had plenty of company. Survivors all got a special ribbon!

The walk itself isn't probably worth a journey, so the overall event would need to be the draw. Hope it all works out!

ehju0901

Jthanmyfitnesspal wrote: »

If you can speed walk (whatever that means to you) 3.1 miles, then you're good! I'm a slow runner, and I've done a number of them, always finishing at the end of the pack. One of them was a cancer fundraiser, and my wife was 1 year post-treatment, so she did it too at her own pace, which at that time was about 20mm or something. She had plenty of company. Survivors all got a special ribbon!

The walk itself isn't probably worth a journey, so the overall event would need to be the draw. Hope it all works out!

I can definitely speed walk. I think it would be a fun trip to make!

goal06082021

There's dozens of "couch-to-5k" (C25K) training plans and apps out there, if you aren't already in the habit of walking that long. Even if you are planning to just walk and not run at all, walking is an endurance sport, so if you're starting on the couch and try to go walk 3 miles right now, you're going to have a bad time.

Most C25K plans are three days a week, with timed intervals of walking and running. You start with lots of short intervals, alternating walking and running for 60/30 seconds or something like that. Eventually the running intervals get longer, and the walking ones get shorter, fewer, and further between, until you're ultimately just running for 30 minutes at a stretch without any walking breaks. From there, once you can run for that amount of time, you can work on increasing your speed to actually travel 5 kilometers in 30 minutes (which is an average 5k time). There are some C25K plans that shift focus from time to distance partway through, like you spend the first six weeks building up to running for 20 minutes no matter how far you get, and then start working on running for one km no matter how long it takes. You can walk slightly faster for the "running" intervals, or just stand/shuffle in place for the "walking" intervals.

edit to add: back in college I did C25K and participated in one of those gimmicky "color run" 5k races, where they throw water and cornstarch with food coloring in it at you while you run. It was a lot of fun but very, very gimmicky. My time was 35:35, nothing to write home about, LMAO. I ended up walking quickly for most of it.

PaytraB

Sounds like a fun trip to plan.

Years ago, I would join 5Ks and walk them with friends. None of us were runners but walkers are welcome and it was a fun time.

Now I run and I don't enter races. LOL. I'm a solo runner, it turns out.

nurselroy

Do it! I've done a number of 5Ks and an 8K and 10K. I love them and just challenge myself to do better each time. I typically go alone as well, but that hasn't stopped me yet. I'm doing a 10K in about a month and a 10 miler in November. Working my way up to do a half marathon in 2022. I am a walker with slow jog intervals.

ehju0901

nurselroy wrote: »

Do it! I've done a number of 5Ks and an 8K and 10K. I love them and just challenge myself to do better each time. I typically go alone as well, but that hasn't stopped me yet. I'm doing a 10K in about a month and a 10 miler in November. Working my way up to do a half marathon in 2022. I am a walker with slow jog intervals.

Thank you for this! I could probably jog in small intervals as well, but we will see. I've found a few around my state that I am interested in, so I think I will sign up. I'm also going to Las Vegas in October (pending what our Covid numbers are looking like as it gets closer), and I want to see if I can find one to do in that area as well!

This thread has been very supportive of me walking and also going alone. Thank you all for that! I tend to get odd looks, mainly about going by myself, when I bring this up to others. If none of my friends want to go, it's fine with me, I don't want to be held back from something I am excited about!

ehju0901

Welp, I'm registered and excited! We'll see how this goes! Bought my Amtrak ticket and booked my hotel as well!