Quickest 5K in a long time… (on an early morning run!)

I don’t own a Garmin. I can’t justify that kind of expense.

And, beyond that, I made the decision when I re-started running that I don’t want to get bogged down by the numbers. I just want to run and enjoy it.

I realise, of course, that I might just be telling myself all this to try and console myself for not having one. But I do think there’s something nice about the “element of surprise” when you do a properly timed race, and you get splits and pace for the first time.

I do, however, have an iPod that tells me how far I’ve run, and how longs it has taken me. So, from that, I can work out my overall pace. And if, like today, I pause a couple of times, I can work out my “splits”.

So today, I ran 5 miles altogether, and I did this in 44 minutes!

The first 3K took me 18 minutes, and the first 5K took 26 minutes 40.

I’m amazed at this! I’d been trying to get down to 26 minutes again in a parkrun. This was just on a morning run. I’ve run a 5k at this pace before. I’ve run faster 5Ks before. But not since I started running this time.

This is how I felt this morning.

The run didn’t start well either. I got up at 5.45am, so I could run with my friend, but then she had to bale out. So I’d got up really really early, but had to run alone! I wasn’t intending to run “fast”. I thought maybe I’d see how long it took me to run into town, so I could recce my route to school (I’ll need to run there when I’m training for the marathon properly). But I just felt good, and went with it.

Must be all those hills in Cornwall. I’m going to have to find some hills to run up around here. I’m only in the flattest county in England. It’ll be fine….