Twilight Run

I had put heaps of pressure on myself for my first official 5k race. After a great few weeks of training and some massive improvements in my times both at Park Run and during speed work, I felt I was capable of a personal best. Which meant I would have to run at the slowest 25.57min. My A-goal was to get a sub-25min.
I zipped over to the start of the race, meeting my friend Chris who was running her first official 5k race as well and felt (perhaps) as nervous as I! It was a 4pm start. Chris was in her element with an afternoon race. I was not. I cannot remember the last time I've had an afternoon run but I can tell you the last time I had an afternoon race: high school track & field team. I only did it for participation bonus points and hated it almost as much as it hated me. But that's another story.
On this particular race day, the afternoon weather was hot and muggy with air that felt heavy to breathe. I wanted a breeze or at least some kind of movement in the air, but there was nothing.
I stuck myself well near the front to avoid getting caught in the crowding at the race start. I had never run the Twilight run before or even seen it, but I am familiar with the grounds of UQ. When we were told the course would take us over the bridge I groaned. I had been hoping to stay on the nice, flat UQ side of the river! I know from experience that bridge is menacing. It outwardly looks like your typical, innocent bridge. But as you run or cycle on it you notice that as it is ever so slightly uphill all the way out. You are thus running on an optical illusion - it looks flat, but it certainly doesn't feel flat.
The race started and I was off! I had been able to hold about a 4.50min pace over 2k reps without feeling like I was dying at the end, so I thought to start off with around a 4.50-5.00 pace and readjust as needed.

1km: 4.51min. Felt strong, felt capable. 20% finished! I love short distances...
2km: 4.55min. Still going great. Saw some friends marshalling but chose to save my breath rather than call out to them.
3km: 5.14min. I should mention that the latter part of this km took place on The Bridge. I had hoped that being over the river would entail some sort of breeze or cooling of the weather. I was wrong.
4km: 5.22min. Yikes, I really slowed down here! The hill had sapped me of my strength and - although I had turned around and started to go downhill - I was struggling. I guess I started out too quickly, as my pace really burned off!
5km: 4.54min. It was a struggle to pick the pace back up, but I managed. I had scouted the finish line ahead so knew what to expect as I rounded the final corners. At this stage, I knew I was out of the sub-25min range but well within my PB goal. The question would be how close I got to that elusive sub-25!

Total distance: 5km
Total time: 25.23min
Average pace: 5.03min/km

When results were posted I learned something even cooler - I'd placed fairly well! Now, I know you're not supposed to compare yourself against other runners and yadda yadda yadda, but I couldn't resist.
My rankings in the 5k were as follows:
Overall: 113/1037
Gender: 32/716
Category (Females age 18-39) 13/396

The last one is especially exciting for me. 13th place against nearly 400 women ages 18-39 who ran the 5k! My head is growing as I type this. Pretty soon I'll need extra space at the start line to make room for my ego. Pretty soon I'm going to be one of those cherry pickers who only runs races where I have a decent shot of a Top-10 finish (or whatnot).

And on a last note, I had worried I might get "runner envy" as I watched the start of the 10k and half marathon at 5pm. As Chris & I watched the start of their race, a cool breeze finally picked up. It was the type of breeze that proceeds a storm, with the scent of distant rain threatening the air. I thought of the other runners out there for the next 1-2+ hours and was very grateful my race was over & done so quickly. 25min of pain is far better than 125min of pain! We cheered the starters, but what do you say to someone running either 10k or 21.1k when you are at the 50m line? "Congratulations, 50m down!" ... "Only 1-2hours to go!" ... "Keep it up!"
We got a few smiles, a few strange looks, and a few, "but we've just started!" protests as we cheered them on. Chris began to worry we'd cause a racer injury through either whiplash or tripping when someone turned to stare at us crazy cheerleaders. But I didn't get runner envy at all.

A picture of the approaching storm over the finish line. Glad I missed it!

We headed home after the last starter passed us and hadn't been home for 5min when the storm hit. Big storm. It was an hour after the start time - near the end of the 10k, but only halfway through the half marathon, which was later cancelled.  All that training and effort and planning and sacrifice, and then a storm hits. How frustrating! Who could predict?
And yet...I'm starting to like 5k races more and more!