1st 5K this past weekend?

[Rambis]

I told myself I would not go out fast but it was down hilll and I got carried away. Funny because my first mile was 7:20 and I new I was in trouble. I usually run 8 or 8:15 minute miles on a flat oval track. I ended up with a 7:52 pace so it all evened out anyway. Strange thing is I am sore in my upper body? I guess I need to start working on that on my off days. I was 13th in my age group 45-50. I run 40 minutes every other day. Since I have never raced before how many days should I take off or should I just get right back to running my 40 minutes right on schedule? I am going to enter a 10K later in April to see how that goes.