Striders Series 5k. I decided to run this race yesterday when Sasha encouraged me to take the comp to run the whole series. I was vaguely planning to run a couple of the races, but I had not anticipated starting this weekend. I ran this 5k last year and it's pretty painful so I knew it would just make a good workout, particularly because I haven't yet raced this year.
The race was much different than last year when we had a bunch of ringers in the race, Corbin, Bob, Paul, Sasha etc. To give you an idea of the difference in the field; I took 10th last year running just one second slower than this year. It's all about who shows up. On that note, I was glad to see Cody, Jon & Andy there. I imagine there were other bloggers as well, but I didn't get a chance to see/talk to any. I hope all had good races.
We started slow, in my opinion. Tim Wight was out front for the first mile. I kind of sat back and tried to figure out what kind of race this would be. At the top of the hill at 1.4 I made a move into first. Jon Allen surged and caught me briefly. He would do that several times on the descents. I held the lead from 1.5 until about 2.75 when Ben VanBeekum caught up to me. I made another move and again held the lead for another .10. He surged at about mile 3 and I didn't respond well. Jon caught up to me and put on a move, at which point I realized I actually did have a kick in me. I nearly caught Ben, who finished .06 ahead of me in 17:53.6.
I didn't come to the race expecting a win, and I didn't get one. Figure that out. I suppose I'm happy with the race considering I haven't been in a race mode so far in 2008. It did feel good to move the legs, however, and I look forward to subsequent races in the series. I think I can find a little more in the tank. | 