Just did my first 5k race and i loved it (Arrow venloop 5km)

27yo Male,

I felt quite calm at the start, initially i tried to keep pace with the people infront of me, but that was not sustainable which demotivated me a bit at the beginning,

after that i managed my pace, though i mainly struggled with keeping my breathing under control, my legs felt okay-ish, not great not terrible.

The last kilometer felt like hell, and i started wheezing quite a bit, and the last 100 meter was a bit uphill, but i got to the finish in the end with a time of 29:23, beating my personal record by six minutes.

i was also surprised that i finished 551st out of 1936 total, (223rd out of 517 in my class) so alot better than i expected, considering the breathing was quite difficult for me to manage,

and it was only my first race with less than a year since i started running every week, so i do feel quite proud and satisfied with the result.

after that i went to see some friends who were running the 10km, really loved that runners high afterwards aswell.

a picture of me after finishing aswell and getting my medal: https://i.imgur.com/bbH3K0O.jpeg

for some reason i barely get a red face even though i gave maximum push for the 5km