Went outside this morning and couldn't believe how nice the weather was. The temperature was perfect for racing. Although I didn't have a real great week running, I felt pretty good this morning. Often times, when I am feeling poor leading up to a race I end up racing really well. Warmed up by running 2 miles to the starting line. There were a few really fast looking guys so I could tell that, despite this being a fun run, that there was good competition. After looking at a map of the course, I didn't think that this would be a fast race. The first mile has a slight elevation gain (38 feet), there is a good elevation gain during the second mile (83 feet) then the third mile really drops (125 feet). My plan was to run 6:15, 6:30 then hope I have something left to take advantage of the downhill. As it turned out, this is exactly what Sasha's course tool predicts. The gun went off and the lead pack quickly formed. There weren't the usual young rabbits sprinting for the first 100 meters for some reason. I settled into 8th place and the pack slowly stretched out and nobody was running together. After about 0.75 miles, I caught and passed another runner. First mile came in at 5:57 and I was really surprised. Turned onto 500 South which is where the majority of the elevation gain is. I slowly moved up on another runner and was able to pass him during the uphill. Turned onto Orchard Drive and the big climbing is done but now there is a slight incline for another half mile. I was slowly closing in on the runner ahead of me. I eventually caught up to him just past the 2 mile mark. Second mile was 6:31 which was exactly what I wanted. I started to get really nauseous at this point. The feeling only lasted for a few seconds. We eventually turned onto 1800 South which is where the fun begins. It is a pretty good downhill. I could see another runner ahead of me but wasn't sure if I could catch him. I could feel somebody moving up from behind so I tried to focus on my best downhill running technique. I relaxed and let gravity do it's thing and was able to put some distance between me and the other runner. Unfortunately, I wasn't making up any ground on the runner ahead. Made one of the last turns and took a peek over my shoulder. I was surprised to see 3 runners only a couple of seconds behind me. Since I don't have a very strong kick, I started to worry a little. I put it into another gear and started to move. At this point I really started getting nauseous. This usually makes me slow down but I refused the urge this time. I kept going and made it through the finish line in 18:27. Last 1.1 ended up being 5:59 (5:26/mile). I got an unexpected PR and was finally able to average less than 6:00/mile in a 5K. Just after crossing the finish line, the nausea overwhelmed me and I started to dry heave. Fortunately nothing came up.
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