Your First 5K - Times?

BrianSharpe

My first official 5K was the Army Run is Sep 2009 - chip time of just under 40 min, a year later ran the same race in 26:46 (was shooting for 25:00 but started out too fast and blew my brains out).

ciderface

Hiya,
Im a 'heavy runner' and have dipped in and out of running for a few years, my 5km time averages at about 35 mins. and thats with no walking breaks.
I ran the London marathon last year and ran a terrible time, I was cross with myself and gave up running altogether. Ive put on tonnes of weight, am stuck in a rut mentally, so Ive entered the ballot for next years London marathon, and have started a training plan. So far this week Ive done 3 lots of 2 miles in approx 26 mins. Im feeling brighter already, so excersize can only be a positive.

If it means running to shift some pounds then running is what I'll do.

Relax about your time and enjoy it.

Ciderface

wombat94

I started running in January with a couch 2 5k program. My first 5K race was on St. Paddy's day... I ran it in 36:20.

My second 5K race was a few weeks ago, and I set a PR with 35:24.

I've got my third race two weeks from saturday - I'm hoping to get under 35 minutes.

Don't listen to the running zealots on the Runner's World forums... great magazine, toxic online community!

Don't worry about your time for your first race... enjoy the atmosphere, run a solid run - don't try to kill yourself - and set your own benchmark with the result of that race... THEN you can start to work on improving that time - if you feel like it.

For me, 5K was the original goal and I wanted to run it faster and faster... now that's secondary to running longer. I'm focusing on half marathon this year and marathon next year.

Most of all... enjoy the running!

Ted

michaeljdaly9

I did a water aid charity run about a year ago. I hadn't trained for it at all but nether the less I went for it and I was surprised with how well I did. I ran it in under 20 minutes but I could round it up to 20 minutes from 19:34.

kathleenkilhefner

How did you do on your 5k race?

Ohhim

Don't worry about your first 5k time.

For the record, 39 minutes was my first 5k time. In the 18 months since then, I've put in about 800 miles of training runs, and my sprint triathlon 5k run time (done after an hour of biking/swimming) a few weeks back was 26 min.

Speed will come with time/practice.

jenEphur

I ran my first 5k at around 325 pounds and walked most of it, finishing at 49ish minutes. I've been training for my second one in the last week of October, and I am down 25 pounds from that right now (300.0 baby...almost 299!). I'm hoping to run all of this 5k, even if I'm running at a speed so slow that I could walk faster, and finish in around 39 minutes.

Best of luck to you! I've been doing the 5k 101 podcasts, and they've been super helpful! I just did the second day of week 3, and walked 5 minutes (warmup), jogged 3 minutes/walked 2 minutes (5 times) and then ended with a 3-5ish minute cool down walk. It was a bit over 30ish minutes and I got a bit over 2 miles in. It's a program worth looking into!