TracyW's first 5k was seen as a big jump forward in her progress to becoming a runner - TheEd

I woke up having dreamt about my race - cannot recall much of the details just knowing that there had been some complication and that I was disappointed in myself.

I took things easy but did not stay horizontal as I did not want my legs to feel lazy. The race was at Battersea Park in London so we travelled in from Tunbridge Wells nice and early ( I am one of those irritating people who would rather be 1 hour early than 1 minute late). I chose the Race for Life as it was the one race I could find in time for my schedule, otherwise I would have had to wait until June.

There were 7000 female participants and it was heart breaking in a way looking at so many people with names pinned to their backs of people they had lost to cancer. I decided to run in memory of my boyfriends mom whom we lost to cancer in January.

I was also cheeky enough to put the website on the same piece of paper, I figured there had to be some people behind me who would notice it! I had followed the eating advice given by the team at Time-to-Run and was not hungry at all. I drank a carbo drink on the way to the race and some water before the race, but stopped about an hour before running. I felt really nervous and popped to the porta loo's three times before the race.

I tried to move towards the front of the runners but eventually managed to get about 5 metres from the front. We had about a 5 minute wait before they started us and I felt edgy to get going. Before I knew it the siren sounded and off we went. It was really difficult to get going with so many people and it was quite crowded, a lot of bumping and bussling going on.

At the 2K mark, I was so thirsty and my mouth was really dry. I had not anticipated feeling thirsty because when I run in the mornings it is obviously a lot cooler and at this stage I don't take a drink with me, there were no water points on the route. I was looking at the river in desperation at one stage. The race course was pretty flat with only two very little "bumps" so no downhills to catch your breath.

I finished the race in a time of 35:53. I was surprised at the time, I had a bet with TheEd at Time-to-Run that I would do 40 mins and his time for me was 35, so he won! I was, in a way, a bit frustrated with the amount of people, I could not get into an actual stride as I was always dodging people. There was no time to just relax into it. I have also realised that if I am going to do more races I really need to get used to running with other people so my next task is to joining a running club. I think the event was good in that I did not feel intimidated by thinking there would be all these really fast people around me. It was also for a good cause in that I managed to raise some money towards cancer research.

I am now keen to run a "proper" 5K and see how I do in that, but I have already received my instructions that my training towards an 8k will start on Sunday!

For further information on TracyW and her training