41(ish)

I finished the 5 mile run in 41 minutes, give or take a second or two. On the face of it, I should be really pleased with that. I'm aiming to build up to 8 minute miles over 5 mile - 10k races, and I'm almost there. Considering I was ecstatic with a 59 minute 10k back at the end of November I've made a lot of progress. But I'm still kicking myself that I got so close to breaking 40 minutes and fell just short.

It wouldn't be so bad if I'd run the whole thing but (whisper it) I walked a bit. Yes, I can run a half marathon from start to finish but today there was a hill (which had to be tackled twice) and on the second time round I ended up walking a bit. Maybe if I'd kept running I'd have broken 40, but then maybe if I'd kept running I'd have used every bit of energy I had left, and I'd have ended up even slower. I guess I'll never know, but at least my walk was very controlled, I knew exactly when I was going to start running again, and I started running when I told myself I would. I knew (because the course was 2 laps) that once I got up the hill I'd be OK, so I just got up the hill any way I could and took it from there.

On the plus side, my finish was really strong. I could feel myself getting faster and faster over the last mile to the finish, really trying to get every bit of energy back out of my legs to sprint to the finish. In the past I've been using those last dregs of energy just to get to the finish, but today I really did feel more like I was racing to get there.

So I learned a couple of lessons. I ran at a faster pace per mile run/walking today than I have done in any race I've run before, and I'm showing huge improvements. But I'm still sitting here thinking what if...