When you ran your fastest 5K, did you suspect it might be the fastest 5K that you would ever run?

5k PR - No. I was sure I'd run faster. 10K PR - Yes. Ran 30:44 after graduating college and took 34 seconds off my best. Ran in dream state, thought the people giving me splits were lying to me. Ease of being able to run that fast never happened to me before or after. I have no idea what happened. It was nearly effortless. I was in first few weeks of professional career and it was already starting to cut into my 80 mile weeks. Probably explains my peaking. But to run that fast that easily is to this day inexplicable to me. I had a strong feeling that I had hit my "perfect day" and this kind of race would never happen again. Ran a bit faster than my old PR a couple times but never approached 10K best again.

NO!

Best 5K time came in a low key 5K race on the bike trails along the Willamette in Eugene in '81. I ran it for the workout, it was a toss-off.

I kicked like a demon over the last 300, feeling stupid for leaving so much left over and only getting 4th.

(Earlier that year I'd run a 3 mile race that was worth 35 seconds faster.)

i knew it might be my fastest, but didn't think it would be my last

Likeisaid wrote:

Not at all. I was in the bahamas at a race just for fun, and ran a huge pr because I was relaxed and it didn't matter

That was me too. I hadn't been seriously training for several weeks when I ran my PR. I signed up for a race, went out and got drunk the night before, slept a few hours, got up and ran a huge PR.

Yes-because a race marshall directed the lead pack to take a 300 yard shortcut, so I PR'd by close to a minute. I knew I'd never run a 5K that fast again the minute I crossed the line.

Never thought any of my PR's were "it".

Ran my last all time PR at a standard distance (Half Marathon) at age 39. Didn't know that was "it".

My 5k PR came off a long late night, little sleep, almost no warm up and I was still stretching at the starting line while they were giving instructions. I went out slow with another guy I knew could take me out at a pace slower but not too slow, then dropped a hard 2nd and 3rd miles and just sucked it up after that. I never knew how fast I was going until I could see the finish clock and I just dug deeper to break my PR by 3 seconds.

numiler22 wrote:

My 5k PR came off a long late night, little sleep, almost no warm up and I was still stretching at the starting line while they were giving instructions. I went out slow with another guy I knew could take me out at a pace slower but not too slow, then dropped a hard 2nd and 3rd miles and just sucked it up after that. I never knew how fast I was going until I could see the finish clock and I just dug deeper to break my PR by 3 seconds.

Oh, and I never ran that again, but it came with a coach that never let me race 5k and just beat his runners down. Just a few even run now, but I want to beat that PR before I'm too old.

Gratz. This type of progression is similar to my life experiences. You should feel great pride in your commitment to work at it and develop. It's a whole different ball game doing it out of school. Para

I think this is a very good question. When I ran my PB 5K, I was in prime shape and in my best years. I felt I ran as hard as I possibly could on that day. It took so much to get to that point, training very hard (for me 70mpw) so much luck in being injury free, rested perfectly etc. I felt I could have maybe taken a few seconds off if conditions were perfect, but being injury prone, I knew deep down this was as fast as I would get. I ran a few seconds < 14:00m

When I first went under 15:00 for 5K I knew it wasn't the best I had to give since I'd been doing some serious drinking in the weeks beforehand and therefore partially offsetting the best stretch of training of my life. At the same time I was in my 30s and knew I would only get so many more shots at a fast track race. So I figured my time stood a good chance at remaining my lifetime PR. And that is looking more and more likely as I approach my 92nd birthday.

Conundrum wrote:

I ran my fastest 5k at age 49 and d I did suspect I might not ever run faster. (I did run a 5K faster two weeks later but it was a noncertified course so I couldn't count it)

Definitely not. My fastest time is from a time trial on the track in July, going into my junior year of XC. Had a pacer help me out, and dropped a PR off of just mileage and no workouts. Was more of a 1500 runner, but I figured I'd at least do a few 5ks over the next 2 years of track. Never did. Way off that level of fitness now and I'm more interested in running mountains and I doubt I'll ever be interested enough in racing on the track again to get back there.

My 10K PR and 5K PR came in the same race...5K PR was second half of that race. It took 100-120mpw for 6 months to get in that shape, and I already knew I was on the ragged edge. I had been there several cycles before and knew it was about all the training I would ever be able to handle. It was a dream race the whole way through. When I finished, looking at my name on the scoreboard, I knew I'd never run a 10K that fast again. But I thought I'd be able to top the 5K PR in the near future. However I started working full time, had a kid, and bought a house in just a few months after that and pretty soon I was running 80mpw and all it did was slow down the rate at which I got slower...

never thought about it till now.

i ran one 5k period - a race but just a workout. but it was a good one in 14:50. was not tired and could not believe the time. was getting in the groove for sure - but a few months later i cracked an ankle and was gone from the sport half way through university.

i remember some good rock playing before the meet and got into a nice rhythm. and afterward went on a 10 mile run.

those kind of days you remember.

This is pretty inspiring to me, as a mid-20s female. Did you not train seriously until you were 26-27? Keep it up!

Absolutely. Moved back to NYC in my mid 20's and decided to get serious about running for the first time since high school. Was ok aerobic wise but was 200 lbs after years playing tournament hockey. Took a year to build a base and lose weight. Then a year where the final 16 weeks were averaged 90mpw

Goal was to break 15 for 5k on the track....ran 15:12. 15:15 and 15:06

Was on pace in the last one before back to back laps of 75 to start the 3rd mile and I could never get them back.

Figured that was as good as it was going to get....didn't run a step for years after that. Now if I get back into racing at times breaking 20 out here in Denver is a good time.

i knew when i ran my pr at my last college race that it was the fastest i would ever go. without college coaching, a team to support me, and a 40 hour work week i knew my future pr's were out the window. although i did think that if i could somehow continue training with a team, a coach, and didn't have to be a corporate slave that i could have kept improving. but that porsche, 401k, and expensive women are a lot sweeter than another second off my time

Actually yes.

For 5k, I rarely ran them in college since I was a mid-D guy in track, and xc was almost all 8ks (D3). We ran one 5k at the beginning of the season on a fast course, so when I ran that my senior year, I wasn't surprised to PR and never run one again in that kind of shape.

For 8k even, my best was close to the end of the same season, and on the fastest course we would run, so I wasn't surprised it was my best time. I ran a better race later in the season, but it was a tougher course so slower time.

I'd be very surprised if my current 5k pr ends up being my lifetime pr. I'm 24 now and have set a new 5k pr every year since I was 14 with the exception of my first year out of college. I started off at 22:04 freshman year of high school and have since worked my way down to 14:46. I'm pretty confident I will continue to improve. I've never had any serious injury issues and I'm more motivated than ever.