After close to 11 years of participating in New York Road Runner events and 49 races later, I finally made the podium at the 2025 edition of the Mindful 5k. At the inaugural event last year, I had just missed out to my friend, Evan. Going into my first goal race of 2025, I not only desired to set a personal best, but if possible, I wanted to land a podium position.
The course at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, NY is flat, yet technical with turns. I always consider this park the flattest, slowest course because of it. Yet, I knew the turns a lot better the second time around, as I surprisingly ran the tangents very well.
My goals?
1.) Sub 16:00 to 16:10
2.) Podium
3.) Achieve a personal best
Even though I did not hit my sub 16 minute goal, I shaved nine seconds off my previous personal record set on this course last year. Although funny enough, the week of the race a lightbulb went off in my head on how to approach my training for the long-term. Hopefully it will yield to steady improvement without beating my body up. No proprietary systems, magic training formulas or anything like that. Just more of a realization on how to structure my workouts in a way that works best for me.
Going in, I had an idea of what I could possibly run, hence the sub 16:00. Although I could hit those paces in different ways at practice, I have yet to absorb the workouts that will lead to running those times. I felt strong throughout on race day. I planned to hit the first mile at 5:10 pace, which I achieved. Though I could not quite work it down, I kept the pace steady with enough room to send it home, clocking 16:17 to average 5:15 per mile. Good enough for a third place finish, just five seconds behind second position. Two out of three goals achieved!
Overall, my training is still in a good spot. I’m covering more ground efficiently. Conceptually, I’m also putting together all of the information that I’ve studied these past ten years. Further, my times have progressively come down since the start of the year. I opened with a 17:07 5k in January and just progressed to 16:17.
Onward to the RBC Brooklyn Half. Thanks for reading!
