The start was 8AM with 75F and over 80% humidity. If you read my blog the last week you know that I said that anything below 37:30 will be cool and below 37:00 it will be awesome. So let me give you the bottom line: 0:36:36 (7:19 aveg. pace) hooooray!!! The gun time was 0:36:39 which probably means it took me 3 seconds to cross the starting mat. That makes sense given the fact that I placed myself not on the first line.
The splits were a bit crazy:
mile 1: 6:49 (as usual starting way too fast)
mile 2: 7:24 (more reasonable pace, some turns and starting to climb)
mile 3: 7:40 (all climbs and pay time for the fast pace at the beginning)
mile 4: 7:22 (back on track in term of pace, no more big climbs)
mile 5: 7:21 (momstly down hill and then the finish line at sight)
On second thought the splits were not totally crazy. 3rd mile was really almost completely up hill. The hills started at about 1.5 and kept going up and up till a little pass the 3 mile mark. We roughly gained 120 feet in those 1.5 miles. Then it sort of flattened till 3.5 and then the net loss of hight begun but it was not all down hill.
So I'm quite happy about the results. I was 13th in my age group which is not glorious (out of 39 males age 35-39). I placed 76 out 387 who ran the 5 mile race.
0:36:36
A tought: It's always so encouraging to see those men and women in their 60s or even 70s running. I just hope that 30 years from now on July 4th 2038 I will run this race again and win my age division :-).
Happy 4th of July to every one! | 