I am so slow!

It's all relative. There will always be somebody faster than you, but also somebody slower than you. You may feel like the most ungraceful one out there, but you're still lapping the vast majority of people out there who can't even complete a 5k run. Everybody here is saying it because it's true - don't compare yourself to others. Your focus should be on whatever your goals for running are, and they shouldn't be based on people around you.

I don't know how new to running you are, but I would put less focus on pace for now. You've set a 5k PB and pushing yourself over and over to try to beat it can only be discouraging if you don't succeed quickly. Given that you say you get a dry throat and get super red (I'm guessing overheating?), I would focus on both making sure you hydrate well throughout every single day (nothing wrong with having your camelback though), and also slow your pace down during the runs to a more comfortable speed (able to talk in full sentences). Yes, it may be very slow, but that's fine. Run slower, but keep pushing yourself to run longer distances. The pace will come, don't worry.

/r/running Thread