First Competitive 5k in the Books!

I'm pumped up from today and just want to brag and get some "atta boys" from strangers. If that's not your cup of tea, no need to read on.
I lost 70 pounds in about 5 months, mostly through diet and p90x3 (almost done with round 2). I started running about 2 months ago as a way to get my calorie burns in when I was on vacation or couldn't do my p90 workouts for whatever reason. And for whatever reason, I got into running. I've NEVER been a runner... I don't think there was ever a time I could run a mile without stopping. But as I lost weight and ran more, I started getting better. Now, my typical runs are 3-4 times a week, and I go 4-7 miles just depending on the day, how I feel, how much time I have, etc.

So... my company has the Cool Kids Campaign as its corporate charity, and they were holding a 5k today. I signed up. 5k for me at this point is not daunting as far as distance goes... but I've never run for time. I've always run for the sole purpose of burning calories. As a competitive person, I decided that maybe racing would jazz me up even more, and it definitely did. To see some of these people run sub-18 5k is unreal.

At any rate... when I run, it's on pavement and on moderate hills. This bad boy was on wet grass, uneven dirt trails with sticks and boulders, etc. and the slopes were intense... it was on the side of a friggin hill.

First race... about 300 runners... I ran a 23:20. Good enough for 2nd in my age bracket and 6th overall.

I know the time is less than impressive... I was 6 minutes behind first place for God's sake. And the competition was definitely weak... this isn't a big drawing race. But what I also noticed was how the competitive juices pushed me. I was behind the same person for 21 minutes or so, and the last 1/2km was a huge climb. Instead of focusing on just running, my focus was on passing this person, and sure enough I did about 100m from the finish. That felt really great.

So I'm super pumped to compete some more. I'm not going to win anything notable... yet... but I am sure that competition will help drive my times down, and may encourage me to do a more structured training program geared at speed, just as much as burn.