28 Starting racing
Description
This article is from the running Beginners' FAQ, by Ozzie Gontang with numerous contributions by others.
28 Starting racing
Once you have been running for a few months you may want to run a race. You
might have started out with one in mind. You should try to pick out a small
race that you are sure you can finish. It shouldn't be more than 1.5 times
as far as you regularly run. You will start off faster than you normally
run, so you don't want to be pushing the distance up as well. At most small
races, you can just turn up and enter on the day, but entering in advance
makes it harder to back out.
The aim of your first race is to finish, hopefully in reasonable shape.
After a few races, you will have more experience, times to aim at and
probably a couple of familiar faces that keep just beating you and that you
*are* going to beat next time :-), but for now, take it easy. Start at the
back, and try not to get sucked up into running too fast. If you can, start
slowly - you can always speed up in the last mile.
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