A few months ago, I decided to run a 5k race at some point this summer. After some googling around, I found one here in Eden Prairie and circled the date. That day was today.

In keeping with the Crossfit philosophy of general physical preparedness, I purposely didn’t do any specific training for it. Sure, we run, usually 400m a couple of times per work out. But no “ramping up” or “tapering down” to prepare. I did the Workouts of the Day last week, just as I usually do.

The race itself was an interesting experience. I’d estimate that there were only about 200 runners, but the route was on a bike/walk path, so it was far narrower than a street. I purposely started near the back, which turned out to be a mistake. My thinking was that I wanted to run my own pace, and not have the psychological urge to keep up with anyone. Well, I ran my pace, and quickly got bogged down in traffic. The first half mile took 4:30, and I passed probably a third of the pack by then. I hit the one mile marker at 8:17, and by then things had thinned out. I fine at this point, and the second mile marker at 16:57. After about 2.5 miles, I started to fade a little. Once I could see the finish line, it gave me a good gauge for how hard I could go and when. With about 200m left, I opened it up as best I could and finished at 29:37. I promptly threw up in the bushes, walked a little bit to cool off, did a burpee for good measure, and called it a race.