AM - 8 easy, no watch. 7:40 estimate.
PM - Headed to City Park for the next in NOTC's summer 2-mile series. This one was on pavement in City Park. Local Hero (LH) was there and my only goal for the race was to beat him. I wanted to take control of the race somewhere between 1.0 and 1.5 miles and build a gap so his kick couldn't reach me.
It was 81/76 air temp & dew point at race time according to Wunderground. It felt super swampy. We got out quick and I let LH build a little bit of a lead since he likes to start fast. I was surprised when all of that lead evaporated on the first set of curves as I hugged the tangents and he didn't. It almost felt like cheating. Around the next set of curves the same thing happened, and I found myself right on his shoulder very early on.
The pace didn't feel as hot as I expected. Around 3/4-mile I slipped into the lead and he didn't try to take it back. I kept the pace steady, and as we reached 1 mile I was surprised to see only 5:04 on my watch. We turned left and we had a half mile of straight before the next turn. I eased the intensity up a notch and kept it there through that stretch. Little by little I heard his footsteps fall back until there was only silence around me.
1.5 miles made another left and I cranked it up a little more. I reached a 1/4-mile to go and opened the throttle even more, making a final push in the last straightaway. I broke the tape about 13 seconds up on my rival. 4:56 for the last mile.
I'm not thrilled with the time, but I'm not reading into that in light of the humidity. Running a fun and successful race is what I wanted out of this, especially during a full week of training.
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