I ran the Women’s 5k Classic over the weekend. It’s the 4th largest all female running event in the US, supporting breast and other female cancers. This year there were 4500 total entrants, 1189 women ran the 5k. My goal was to finish in under 30 minutes, which I did. However, the field was so crowded, I know I could have done better if there had been fewer runners of if it had been held somewhere else with a more open course.

The first mile consisted of weaving in and out of runners which definitely slowed me down. After about 1.5 miles everyone started to fall into their appropriate seed and my run was much more smooth at that point. Although around 2.5 miles I found myself passing women on the hills. Perhaps it was my familiarity with the hills, or their not being able to run hills, but I gained some advantage there for sure. I started my sprint for the finish too soon, realized it and slowed down for 10-15 seconds, then thought to myself ‘what the heck!’ and picked it up again. My finish time was 29:28, so I made my goal, but could definitely have done better. Placement was 310/1189 overall (top 25th percent) and 36/148 in my age group (top 24%). I’ll take it for now.