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I did say I wanted to place . . .

In a recent post I mentioned that on my bucket list is to one day place first in my age group for a 5K. I knew that to do that, I would have to be participating in a pretty small race without much competition.

While I’m pretty fast considering that I only took up running a few years ago and I’ve never been an athlete, I am certainly not any competition to those women who have been running and competing their whole life. My fastest 5K time to date is 27:56, and the ones who usually place in the 40-44 age group are running it in more like 19, 20, maybe 22 minutes. Just to give you some perspective.

So you can imagine my surprise when I placed 2nd in my age group on Saturday!

me with my medal

See that medal? My first!

getting my medal

It was a particularly hot and hilly run, and yes, it was verrrry small and there was very little competition. I didn’t even get my best time; I ran it in 29:15. Everyone was finishing a minute or so longer than their typical 5K time due to the heat and the challenging terrain.

So yeah, me placing for my age group was a bit of a fluke. But I’ll take it!

I would have never come out for this race on such a hot day except to run with these girls!

Whitney, JL, Colleen

Whitney, JL and Colleen

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15 Responses

  1. Small races are the way to go! I’m not fast either. But being in the 30-34 age group seems to be ideal. I guess because a lot of women are in the midst of having babies and not having as much time to train. Usually the women in older age groups are at least a couple of minutes ahead of our group’s best time. I’ve placed 1st and 3rd this spring!

    1. That’s awesome! Yeah, everyone says that the women’s competition gets stiffer in the 35-39 and 40-44 age brackets so I really thought it was a long shot that I would ever place. Now I’m starting to work towards it! It’s fun! I was never an athlete so this is totally a hoot.

  2. Congratulations! That’s very exciting, regardless of the size of the race. I’ve run my first 2 5Ks this year and I have another one this month. I like to imagine getting a medal one day. Not sure it will be possible… for now, I am truly enjoying both the challenge and health benefits of running.

  3. I always wanted to participate in 5 K race, especially the one that sponsored by Hard Rock hotel on the fund-raising event for cleft-palate children. My big problem is I don’t have enough courage to start practicing. Your story is very inspiring. Thanks.

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