5k race today which was also the Road Runners Club of America Mid-Western Region Championships. Was not expecting much as my legs have been dead lately and I have been dealing with a hamstring injury. Course and conditions were not ideal either. Course is a two loop certified course that has a couple small hills but the tougher part is that it has 16, yes 16, 90 degree turns over 3 miles. The wind was 13mph gusting to 20mph so definitely a factor as well. So as you can see I really was not too excited about this race. Well onto the race report.
Most of the first mile was into the wind. I went out at what felt controlled but comfortably fast. Worked my way through the normal crowd of kids and such that start too fast just before the mile mark. Hit first mile at 5:28. Felt ok and was able to tuck in with two runners from team that I coach. At this point I stuck with then until about 1.5 miles and then had a small lapse mentally and he pulled away a little. At this point is where I needed to be tougher mentally and pushed a little harder to stay with him. Went through 2 mile mark at 11:10, 5:42 split. During next 1/2 mile I felt like I slowed again and sort of losing focus. However, I woke up a little when the lead women caught me with 1/2 mile to go. At this point I did not really fight to not let her pass but I did at least latch on and follow. Not sure why but I have not had that fighting spirit when racing lately but at least I didn't just settle and not try and latch on. I did not really kick much at end but either but did enough to split mile 3 at 5:38 and end up with a 17:26.
Overall, I am pleased with the time considering the course and conditions. I did run an ok time and better than expected. However, I still need to get healthy and get that competitive, fighting race edge back so I can keep focused through the whole race. Ended winning the Masters Division and my team won team race so I am definitely thankful for those blessings. Back to training!
13 year old son ran 20:30 for his first official 5k. Afterwards I paced 8 year old son in the community 5k. They had top 100 men and women run separate from community race. 8 year old did great running 22:16 in his first 5k and the first time he has ever run more than 2 miles. His mile splits were 7:11, 7:13, 6:56. On GPS he ended up running 3.15 miles due to the fact that he had to go around all of the walkers he was lapping on second loop.
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