Warmed up before the race by running the course plus a little. The weather was really nice although it was drizzling. Went with shorts, long sleeve shirt and gloves just so I would be comfortable. Legs didn't feel particularly snappy but I felt alright. My goal for the race was to run under 19 minutes and finish in the top 3 (not a very competitive race). As they were doing the countdown I felt like I was forgetting something. It was strange but the way I was standing just didn't feel right. We were off and 2 guys took off very fast. I knew one was shooting for 17 minutes and he built a good lead pretty quick with the other not too far behind him. A quarter mile into the race I realized what didn't feel right at the start was that I did not have my finger on my watch to start it. Who forgets to start their watch in a race? I started my watch and figured that I could use the average pace if nothing else. A female runner went by me and I could not believe that I was going to get chicked. I guess it would only be fitting at a Valentine's day race. After 1/2 mile of being in 4th place I decided to speed up just a little. I closed the distance on the female runner and the 2nd place runner started coming back to me. Passed him and was comfortably in second place. Made the turn at 1.25 miles and was able to see how much distance I had on 3rd place. It wasn't a lot. I tried to run as smooth as possible during the small climb but 3rd place was closing. At the next turn I noticed that he was very close. He caught up at the 2 mile mark and we ran together for 1/4 mile before he started to build a lead. My legs were not burning too much but I didn't feel like I could push any harder than I was. Made the mistake of looking back and realizing that I had 3rd place locked up and probably relaxed a little. Cruised to the finish. Final time was 18:53 and I would estimate my splits at: 5:57, 6:12, 6:11, 0:33). I felt good about the race (only 6 seconds slower than when I ran the course in 2007). The biggest issue was not being able to push to the next level. Physically I was capable of running faster but since I have not spent a lot of time running 5k pace I was not mentally ready for it. I never hit puke pace which is something that I shoot for in the last 1/2 mile of a 5k. My girls ran the kids k and seemed to have a lot of fun.
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