My first official race recap .... Tampa May Classic 5K

For every race that I participate in I am going to try and write a race recap. I want to be able to relive every moment of the race and I think it will help me understand what I could have been better or what worked for me.


Crossing the Finish Line



On Saturday morning, I ran in the Tampa May Classic 5K. It was my second race ever! I was definitely worried about this race because I have been sick the last couple of weeks and therefore haven't been able to get in as many runs as I would have liked. Oddly enough though, I ended doing better than I wanted to. I read somewhere that it is a good idea to have at least one goal for a race to help you do your best. For this particular race, I had two goals: (1) beat my previos time of 40:37 and (2) run the entire race. My ideal race would have been to achieve both of my goals but I only achieved one. I started the race a little fast for my normal pace, mostly because I was trying to keep up with my friends who were running the race with me. Eventually, the fast pace caught up with me. I had to stop running to catch my breath and cough (stupid head cold got the best of me too). Unfortunately, once I stopped running it became easier for me to justify walk breaks as the race went along. I know that taking walk breaks is not the end of the world and many distance runners endorse taking walk breaks as you need them. One of my personal goals for this race was to run the entire distance without taking walk breaks though. Oh well, there is always the next race!