I've done it, I've run 5K with lots of other people and I enjoyed it, but boy was that wind cold when I got there 
So, Farmoor Reservoir is only about 17 miles away, but as I'd never been there before I decided to leave early to make sure I didn't get lost.... believe me, it doesn't take much for me to take a wrong turn!!
Anyway, I got there in plenty of time, 40 minutes early 
, picked up my race number, took a detour to the little girls room and then decided to do my 5 minute warm up, which actually ended up as a 30 minute warm up. The wind was bitterly cold and as it is very open there, I felt every gust. But I got on with it, did a bit of gentle jogging along with the walking, had another trip to the little girls room (it's a nervous thing), decided I had warmed up too much and no longer needed my jacket, put that in the car, and then we were ready for the off.
My number was in the 500's and I did see other numbers in the 600's so I'm assuming there were rather a lot of us there, although there didn't seem to be, anyway off we trotted, up a steep incline (not a nice start) and round a bend into the wind and a smattering of rain.
I tried not to start off too fast, as I know I always manage to do that, and I tried to keep a steady pace going, I didn't pass many people, but quite a few passed me, I wasn't going to let it worry me as I wanted to complete this race by running, not walking. It wasn't the most interesting of routes, the anglers were very kind to us, not hitting us with their fishing lines, and most of them did respond when I said hello to them as I passed them, I get the feeling they were also laughing at my red face but I'm not going to go there.
Anyway, onto the 3K mark and there was a young woman in front of me, who kept running, then walking..... sadly I couldn't manage to get past her, every time I tried she ran just that bit faster than me so that she was able to walk for a while again, and past the 4K mark and I can see the finish in sight, so I decided to sprint the last few hundred metres.... bad mistake, the young woman in front of me also speeded (sped??) up and we were actually racing, but my poor old body can't quite take shocks like that so I had to slow down to a more gentle pace, and she did beat me, but for those few seconds I nearly beat her, if I had waited a bit before sprinting (ah well, we can all dream).
So, timings.... here's the thing. I was timed at the finish at 31 minutes something seconds, wasn't really listening too well as I was trying to beat the white sweatshirt in front of me, but as I hadn't started when the stop watch started, what was my time? My iPod seems to think I ran for over 6K in 29.50 minutes, but as that tracks my steps, which were very small, that might be a bit off also.
You know what, I don't care too much what my time was, I have just run a 5K race (fun run), I definitely wasn't first but certainly wasn't last, there were still plenty behind me, I had a good time, I have a medal for my efforts, and most importantly, I RAN the whole distance
First post grad run! Just for fun! And boy was it fun! 
A wet and soggy run to start the new year. 
My Park Run ~ 1st Official 5K
A wet, windy, hilly 6K and a cruel Spotify 
Well that was a run and a half!!
