First 5K Fears

Who cares if you finish last your out there doing it period......

My first 5K I got passed by strollers, walkers, and a prego.

I got smoked by a mom pushing a double jogging stroller at my last 5k. I mean by like 10 minutes!! It didn't hurt my feelings though...i just thought..."man, she is awesome...i wish i could do that!!"

The absolute worst thing that can happen is you walk for part of the race (and at every race I've been to, there have been people who do this). so what!

You will gain an enormous amount of self-respect by doing it. Go for it, you've got nothing to lose!

I walked my first 5k, my time was 50 mins.. I didn't sign up for it to be competitive though. I am working towards that.. Doesn't matter if I can jog yet.. I am still doing it , and for a good cause! You can do it !!! 25-30 min jog/ 12 min mile is awesome!

not a lot of people can do that. I was being passed by 6 year olds. LOL I am currently at a 14:30 /mi So - I know you can do this!
Have fun!

I'm on week 2. I'm impressed you made it to week 7 - that's already an accomplishment! I'm with everyone else - you got this.

You can do it! When I did my first 5K it took me 32 minutes. I wasn't last, but I was pretty darn close!

I also was afraid that I would be last and that had kept me from signing up from races before. But what I realized is that there are a lot of different people that sign up for races - sure some will run it really quick and be done. But you'll be surprised - there will probably be at least a few people that run whatever pace you do, and its really encouraging to see other people doing the same thing you are.

Good luck!

Run as much as you can (12min/mile is where I'm at too:) Walk if you HAVE to, hold your head high knowing either way your finishing a 5K! ((:Be proud:))

I've been running for about a year now and have never done any type of race. I'm scared to death of it! The weird thing is I'm so competitive I did race my husband on the treadmil once last week. I never run for speed, mostly distance, but I was NOT going to let him beat me (because I knew he thought he would) and I ran a 9 minute mile. The fastest I've ever gone!!

This thread has really helped me too. Thanks everyone!! I love the quote "even if your last you're still lapping everyone on the couch. LOVE IT. I know I can do it, so why not?!?!

OP... We CAN do it. just have to get out there and do it good luck!

I say ... do it. You're going to workout tomorrow anyway, right? Plus, when you finish the race, you will have all those lovely endorphins to be thankful for.

would you look down on the person who comes in last? or would you be waiting at the finish line, cheering them on? go for it! you'll either cheer or be cheered -- nothing wrong with either

I am afraid I'll finish last, or be lapped by 70 year olds.

I just accomplished my first triathlon and I am far from athletic. My friend and I got t-shirts and had someone put on the back the quote "To Finish Is To Win" and we proudly accomplished it. It really doesn't matter where you finish, just that you do!

So 2 and a half years ago I signed up to do the Vancouver Sun Run which is a 10k race. I weighed 436 pounds at the time, and I knew I'd be one of the last ones. I completed the course in 2 hours 36 minutes and by the time I crossed the finish line they were packing up the stations. I was so thrilled that I had even completed it!

Since then I've lost 164 pounds, and this past spring my son and I entered the race again. My goal was to complete it in under an hour and a half, and I crossed the finish line at 1 hour 27 minutes!! I felt amazing again for completing it, but felt even better that I had smashed my old time by over an hour.

As others have said, you have to start somewhere. An opportunity presents itself, so run with it (literally). It will give you a time to work on beating for your next race, and you will feel great about completing it. I highly doubt that you will finish last, as there are usually people that only walk it.

You can do it, and people on here support and also believe that you can do it. Now you just have to believe in yourself!!! Tell us how it goes!! :bigsmile: :bigsmile: :bigsmile:

You can do it!! You will find you always run faster during a 5k, so I wouldn't worry about it. You'll also have people run fast past you only to find you pass them later when they are walking because they burned themselves out going too fast at first. You will have 70 year olds passing you by...my brother in a law has a funny story about the Boston Marathon. He was going strong, almost to the end when this old guy just blew past him. The biggest lesson he taught me with this story is to race against yourself, not anyone else.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I didn't read anyone else's post put this: MAKE SURE TO COOL DOWN! After you finish your run, walk around for 5-10 minutes, stretch!!!! Eat the bananas and make sure to eat something with protein afterwards. My first 5k had me almost on the ground the next day because I didn't cool down or stretch afterwards. Huge mistake! I was so sore. But I did it! I walked part of it after each mile and I still did it with better times than when I ran my C25k program!

Thank you for posting this topic. I'm in a surprisingly similar situation. (Same run time, same week of c25k, and next Saturday is my first 5k.)

Just so you know, there's someone else with the megajitters and we're both going to kick the race's *kitten*. Granted, it's hard to find the *kitten* of a race, but it will get kicked all the same.

You'll be fine! If you have to walk, don't worry about it. You are no less a runner if you have to walk. It took awhile for that to sink into my head. I run\walk about the same pace as you. You will NOT be last. Trust me.

My favorite part of the races I've done are the super supportive spectators!