Challenge intro: 5k Race

A 5k race, 5000 meters, or 3.1 miles in old mileage, is a great race to take part in. It’s a distance that novices can train to complete (even with a bit of run walk), beginners can aim for a time and more experienced runners can aim for improvements which can generally be achieved with a sensible but not overlong training schedule.

It is short enough that training runs can be fit into a busy schedule and you can still walk the day afterwards but it gets your muscles pumping and the endorphins flooding through your systems. It is not so long that the body feels the strain, and the brain feels the boredom, of long and lonely training runs.

Many health guidelines recommend 3-5 sessions of 30 minutes exercise per week. For all but the quickest runners, a warm up, race and warm down will comfortably meet that requisite and a regular running program aimed at completing or improving a 5k mixed with some cross-training and walking will see definite health benefits.

One great 5k that I took part in several years ago, whilst living in London was the Standard Chartered Great City Race that is a 5k race through the heart of the city of London. With roads being closed specifically for the event it gives you the feeling of being part of the London marathon, with the crowds and the iconic location, but without having to run as far!

Of course, a regular timed 5k is the only way to see your times improve, and a good way of seeing your fitness improve.

For this, you can’t really beat a Park Run, which organizes free, weekly, times 5k runs across the world (over 1,400 locations in 23 countries at time of writing). Park Run is a fabulous organization both for getting beginners running and giving more regular, or intermittent runners, somewhere to turn up to and do a timed run. They give great stats showing how you fare against your age group and with T-shirts for 50, 100, 250 and 500 runs there are plenty of built in challenges there!

Talking of stats, here are some:

1. The current world record is a phenomenal 12:37.35 minutes for men and 14:11.15 for women;
2. I improved my pb for a 5k during marathon training from 33 minutes to 27 minutes (so there is hope for everyone!), but am now stuck back at the 31 minute mark;
3. According to Meteor:

• The time required, on average, for a woman to win a 5k run is 00:19:19;
• The time required, on average, for a man to win a 5k run is 00:17:13;
• The average woman completes a 5k run in a time of 00:33:52;
• The average man completes a 5k run in a time of 00:29:11.

Why not grab your trainers and register for a Park Run barcode today?!

Let us know your times in the comments below, we’d be particularly interested to know how long it took to make improvements and will be trying to get some stats on this for future updates.