Finally I felt brave enough to go for my first 5K... firstly my background - I completed C25K in July and since then have been doing OHR completing week 7 today. Running is not natural to me, but have been making good ground over the few months i've been running and seeing everyone who started with me producing their race reports made me realise this was something I had to have a go at!

Anyone who's read my OHR post has probably already seen this, so you can stop reading now

I went to a time trial race that is not too far from me - having checked previous race results on the internet, the slowest times were around 36 minutes so I was a little nervous - expecially as the track guide stated 'undulating' and 'beware of hill'!!! The course was 2 laps of woodlands - I was really nervous that i'd get lost somewhere seeing as everyone would have passed me by the first 1k...

When I got to the venue and saw it packed of highly toned club runners I was nearly ready to turn round and go home, but no way was I really going to back out.

Anyway - started at the back (no point kidding myself) and after the first few steps was second from last! and then the person behind passed me and I set in to just complete the **** thing. Then a few meters later, I realised I wanted to go a bit faster, and before I knew it i'd passed 5 or so people... then the woman who ran passed me (breathing very heavily for someone not yet at the first corner) started walking, so I was passed her too! Refused to look at my watch at the end of the first lap, but felt good and thought I was on track for a reasonable time, and then I hit the hill! Nearly died going up it, passed another person that started walking, but determined to run the whole thing refused to give up. Once at the top, kept the pace slow to recover knowing I still had 2/3 of the lap to go and was by now completely exhausted. managed to complete the lap and even picked up the pace for the end delighted to be reaching the finishing line... I was given a number - 77 (although I had no idea how many started) looked at my watch which said around 29:30. Just got home and checked the official timings, and I actually finished 77th out of 93 with a time of 29:23 Very pleased with myself for doing a sub 30 on my first run, although worried that I need to go faster next time.

All in all I enjoyed it immensly and is great to have something to show for all this training! Anyone like me sitting there worried about whether to go for that first run - I would say 'go for it'! It was an amazing experience and everyone was so friendly. I'm now thinking about when to do my next and also thinking about when I will be ready to a 10K!!!

I guess this is what running is all about!
Cara