Timotion 2024 – My First Official 5k Race
May 12, 2024 is a date I was eagerly waiting for! In late February I have signed up for Timotion 2024, my first official race. Obviously, I signed up for the 5k race (which was actually 5.5 km), because 10k and a half marathon were definitely out of my league as a first official run.
It was an overall awesome experience and that’s why I would like to talk a little bit about it. I’d like to share some insights on how I prepared for the race, what I did wrong during the race and then talk a little bit about the overall experience.
My Preparation For Timotion 2024
First of all, I started very late to run and prepare for the race. I took my very first run ever around 8 weeks before the event. It was one of the most painful experiences I ever had, since for 4 days after that run I could barely sit down on a chair an stand up. Don’t think I ran 5k. I ran only 1.8 km!
I was fortunate to get some very helpful advice from my preparation and, most importantly, I didn’t want to give up after my first running experience. My main goal for the first 3 weeks of preparation was just to fet some kilometres in my feet and try to understand my body. I didn’t concentrate a lot on pace. I only wanted to increase my weekly distance every week. The week before the event I ended up running around 35 km.
During my last 3 weeks of preparation I started to also concentrate more about pace. My aim was to run 5k in under 30 minutes. Therefore, my goal was a pace below 6:00 min/km. That’s why I started to add pace runs, tempo runs and intervals to my running schedule.
For me, pace runs are runs on which I try to run the desired distance as close as possible to my desired pace. Unfortunately, the best pace run I had before Timotion 2024 was on a pace of 6:16 min/km.
Tempo runs are similar to pace runs, but in this type of runs I usually tried to run 1 km around my desired pace and then another km at a slower pace at which I feel more comfortable.
For interval runs I usually tried to run full gas for 300m and then walk 100m. I managed to only get two sessions of interval runs, but I think those helped me a lot. Literally each run after an interval run I could run on a higher pace for a longer distance.
Going Into The Race
The race was scheduled for Sunday, May 12. On the Wednesday before I unfortunately woke up in the morning with quite some pain on my outer right knee. I have to confess, it was a massive blow for me! I was afraid of completely missing my first race. And it was so weird, because literally never during my runs did I ever feel any pain or discomfort in my knees.
Focus on things you can control, though! I talked to some experienced runners and a physio. They explained me that I probably overtrained and that most probably this was an inflamatory reaction, which could be treated with ice and ibuprofen.
That’s what I did for 3 days. They proved to be right and my knee got better and better. On Saturday I didn’t feel pain anymore. I was so keen to go out for a run. In the end I was still 17 seconds off my pace goal. But they also advised me to also rest on Saturday. So, that’s what I did! I only took a 3 km walk.
I am, however, very stubborn and I still entered the race with the goal to achieve 5k in under 30 minutes, even though I was aware it would be very difficult.
Timotion 2024 – The Race Experience
Experiencing a first race is quite an awesome feeling! There’s usually a lot of buzz around this event and a lot of people participate. This creates a very good vibe and I guess it makes hears pump more adrenaline than usual.
For the 5k race there were 604 participants. I was advised to try to get myself a starting position in the first starting lines. And I did it. The idea behind it was that a lot of people would run slower than me and I would lose some time trying to overtake them.
However, things didn’t go quite well and I did my first mistake already in the beginning of the race. In what was something very unexpected from me, everybody started very fast and a lot of people started to overtake me in the first 100m. I was very pumped up and I just followed the crowed. I was feeling I was going too fast, but it didn’t make me go out of breath. However, when I checked my Garmin I noticed I was running a 5:25 min/km pace. I told myself: “Don’t just follow the crowd! Slow down!”.
I did slow down to a pace of around 5:50 min/km which was my goal pace. 500m into the race and a lot of people in front already started to walk and I started to overtake them, even though I was running slower than before. Most of them never overtook me again. The problem is, when you make a mistake like this, you only realize it in the last kilometer!
For the first 2km I managed to maintain a pace below 6:00 min/km and I was feeling quite well. But then, in the third kilometer there were two ascents. My BPM started to go like crazy, so I obviously needed to slow down. Still, I managed to keep the 3rd kilometer at a 06:01 min/km pace, which was still okay.
However, things started to get worse in the fourt kilometer when I needed to slow down. The crazy pace in the first kilometer and the two very easy ascents started to take a toll on my body and I simply couldn’t go any faster. Therefore, for the 4th and 5th kilometer I couldn’t be near my target goal and ended up with a pace of around 6:12 min/km.
There were, however, still 600m left. Yes, the race was actually longer than 5k, which I was aware well before I started it. So, for the last 600m I really needed to dig very deep into myself and step it up a notch. For the last part I managed therefore to get a pace of 5:49/km.
My Results
Crossing the finnish line I was so exhausted that I almost forgot to stop my Garmin. Good that I didn’t! For 10 minutes I just wanted to have some water and I was not able and afraid to look on my race result. But in the end, I needed to do it, no matter if I did achieve my goal or not!
I think my face got instantly filled with joy when I finally checked my stats. Despite of the mistakes I made and the slower last 2 kilometers, I finished the entire race with a pace of 5:58 min/km. Hoorayyyy! I achieved my goal.
The better part of it is that just for a 5k I did finish with 29:47, which was by far a personal record. The mistakes in the beginning at least brought some consolations, as I managed to set new PRs in the mile, in the 2 miles, in 1k and 400m. I mean, I ran 1k faster than I ran in my intervals! Taking this into consideration, I think the fact that I didn’t walk even 1 meter during the entire race is a great achievement.
Regarding the race results, I finished 155th out of 604 participants, with a time of 33:01 for the entire 5.6 km. Basically just below the line of the first quarter. Still, I am very glad with this result!
Learning Points and Next Steps
Obviously, the key learning point I take from this first official 5k race at Timotion 2024 is that I need to be more careful with the start and not blindly follow the crowd. I need to check my watch and just run my planned pace.
Not directly from the race, but still a learning point is that I need to probably tune down the training a little bit. As the physio told me, if I still keep the same level, inflamatory reactions in my joints will be more often. Then there will be microlesions. Then ruptures and serious injuries. Starting next week I will also start weight training with a physio concentrating on building up the muscles that support the joints that are heavily used during runs.
But I will for sure keep running! In two weeks there’s a 5k trail race I signed up for. For that one, my only goal will be to finis, as trail races are a whole different monster in my opinion.
That’s pretty much it! How did YOU experience your first race ever?
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