Entered this race to help my preparation for the Sarasota Half Marathon coming up on 3/17/13. It was a perfect fit into my training plan between two long run weeks. Hadn't done a stand-alone 5K for many years, so had no specific expectations.
Started about 2/3 back in 5K pack. Mostly stayed to right side to stay out of the way when taking walk breaks. Trail was narrow in some spots and got caught behind slower runners a couple of times, especially when 10K runners were passing on the left.
Started on a 3:1 run/walk. Kept reminding myself to keep head up and stride short. Shorter stride also helped on some of the uneven and muddy sections.
Thought I was taking it easy for the first mile, but split time surprised me; much quicker than expected.
Took a quick drink at the water station, but probably could have done without it.
Did the last mile without any walk breaks. Tried to keep focusing on my posture, stride length and turnover.
Didn't sprint at end, just tried to maintain strong pace through the finish chute.


Nothing major. May have been able to push harder at the halfway point. Probably could have kicked harder at the end.

Grabbed a bottle of water and walked around at the finish chute to watch for friends finishing. I started to get chilled so went back to the car to get my warm-up jacket. Went back to the park pavilion to get some food and watch the awards ceremony.


Lose more weight (standard answer). Better sense of pace; this was the first standard-alone 5K that I've done in many years and kind of forgot how to run it.


Well organized, fun race. Good food afterwards. Fit in well to my half marathon prep for next month.
Haven't done a stand-alone 5K for many, many years. This is the first since I started doing triathlons in 2004, so I'll call it a PR. :)
Had a blast. Think I'll be doing some more 5K's in the near future.