What is a 5K like?

First, it’s not a competition if you don’t make it one.
A 5k is a very easy walk, should take about 1.5 hours if you are able to walk at a 3mph pace.

Participating is admirable if you are not in shape or overweight. Even under these conditions you should be able to complete the course relatively easily if it is level ground with no steep grades.

A 5k flatlander course is a cake walk for most.

Just have fun, enjoy the expereince. :-)

@Coloma No, that’s not what I’m asking. I’m not overweight (though my friend is a little bit), but I’m definitely no runner. A 5K is 3.1 miles and I used to do 3.4 miles three days a week last summer without an issue. I don’t need to know if it’ll be hard or not.

I’m asking from a more social standpoint. We don’t want to be the only ones walking. It would be uncomfortable.

A lot of people walk…..

As an athlete myself, I do not judge the athleticism of anyone else. If anything, my thoughts are good when I see people doing anything athletic in the first place.

That being said, do a pace you’re comfortable with and go enjoy yourself! That’s what everyone participating is there to do and you shouldn’t be doing any less.

Don’t worry about it.

There will be tons of walkers. Don’t worry. As a runner I am just happy to see lots of enthusiastic people turning up to support each other (and, in this case, a good cause!)

And except for one person at every event, even stick thin runners have stick thin runners zooming past them.

One thing to keep in mind—do try to stay to the back. Runners will try to unofficially corral themselves so that the fastest people are up front and slower ones stay toward the back. If walkers do the same it helps everyone’s pace.

I’ve ran and walked in 5K events. There were tons of walkers, a few in wheel chairs, some brought their dogs. The people varied in sizes and shapes. It was a lot of fun and seemed to bring people together.

It’s like three miles. Really, anybody could run/jog three miles without any training. Just keep at it, and at worst, should take about a half of an hour. It’ll be over before you know it, and you’ll feel so good you’ll want to go for another lap,

In most 5K events, there is a large percentage of walkers. We even take our toddlers and strollers when we participate.

@12Oaks

“Really, anybody could run/jog three miles without any training.”

Sorry, but this is not true and there is no reason to make the OP feel bad. There are many people who, for many reasons, cannot run or jog. I, for example, have loose cartilage fragments in my knee, and weight-bearing exercise like running could jar them loose. I can walk or bike without a problem (just did a 25-mile bike event yesterday) but jogging is not safe for me.

@crisw I apologize. You are right, that was unfair. Maybe I should have said if you are considering to do a 5k, which means you are likely already in good general health, then you should have no problem finishing.

@12Oaks Again, I wasn’t worried about the difficulty of the 5k and I wasn’t worried about not finishing. That wasn’t my question.

I went, we walked, others walked too, and it went fine. I don’t see how you can walk 3 miles in a half an hour when even the runners were finishing around that time (the faster ones), but it was still a success.