The Ultimate Race Day 5k Playlist Guide

The key to a speedy 5k is a speedy playlist for race day. I made a race day playlist perfect for a turkey trot 5k or any other local race you plan to hop into. Having a race day playlist is a great way to stay on pace and focused.

I love running, that’s no secret. I do NOT love running roads. I rarely ever do it. I did a hilly road half marathon back in November 2018 as well as a Turkey trot 5k in 2018 but other than that I haven’t done any road races.

When people ask about PRs I have no idea since I run on trails and my races are on obstacle courses. Paces don’t mean a ton to me since they don’t ever fully translate to the type of races I do but knowing my PR for a mile and 5k could be nice for measuring fitness progress over time. 

I decided that since I’m about to go into the off-season I would give in and do the local Turkey Trot 5k to test my 5k speed before I take some downtime.

I feel like my fitness began to sort of fade off after the Spartan North American Championship race in Tahoe at the end of September so I don’t believe I am still at peak fitness but I still want to test it out. 

At the moment my current 5k PR is 22:30 BUT that was set in April 2020 on a slight downhill grade so it doesn’t really count.

The Turkey trot I did in 2018 I believe was around 26 minutes or so. I’m excited to see what it is but honestly, even though this race doesn’t hold a lot of importance for me I still feel nervous.

I’ve never run all out for 3.1 miles with no obstacles or varying terrain. It’s going to hurt, a lot. I would like to go sub 21:40 but that seems far reached. 

Why I Made Race Day 5k Playlist

My coach recommended that I don’t look at my pace or heart rate during the race. She knows they when I feel like I’m running a pace beyond my ability or when I see my heart rate at threshold I psych myself out and get really worked up.

Garmin allows customized activity screens so I created a 5k activity and during the event, I will literally only be able to see distance. I will have no idea how fast I’m going or how long I’ve been running. 

This is making me nervous and I keep thinking about using the pacing pro feature on my new watch instead but my coach knows me and I believe she’s right, I’ll psych myself out.

Today I ran an easy 5k at an 8:15 pace (I had 4x 30-second pickups in the last 10 minutes). But that felt…. easy. It shouldn’t be THAT hard to go sub-7-minute pace if I just focus on picking people off. Also, my new road shoes and watch are obviously going to make me extra fast right?!

I made myself a very upbeat 5k playlist. I suppose if the playlist ends before the race then I’ll know I’ve been running far too slow lol. It is only 27 minutes long. I’ve shared the link below. 

Update to say, I have added MANY songs to this playlist since starting it and now it can be used for races much longer than a 5k so check it out and enjoy ticking off the miles to some great beats. You can also check out what I listen to while running on easy days.