Striders Winter Racing Circuit 5K
Jon drove me down from Logan and we met up with Andy and ran the course. Slight change on the last mile over last year. More gradual downhill with two extra uphill sections (short). The finish was one of those. I would guess that the course is slightly faster over last year, but only by a few seconds max. As the race was getting started, I noticed all the big boys were not there this year like last so it would be a very different race. I started out with the lead pack about a step or two behind for the first mile. We dropped the first victim by mile one and the pack was down to 6. Chad, Jon, Walter, Tim, and Ben. 6:00 first mile. Net gain of ~100 feet. I felt good just cruising along up the first big hill, but couldn't get the turbo going on the downhill. Everyone slowly pulled away on the downhills. Second mile was 6:03. I had to do some math to figure out my splits after the race as for some crazy reason the Garmin was messed up. It showed me running 2 min miles at 30K feet. I was within 3-4 seconds of the leaders but couldn't close. The downhills in mile 3 were sure nice and that helped me drop Walter and then I got Tim on the final uphill to move into 4th. Mile 3 in 5:24. Nothing changed over the last icy .14 miles. 32 seconds and it was all over. I was shooting for breaking 18 mins and just did it. I got 17:59 on my watch but the official results show 18:00. I am happy with it as it is almost a minute faster than last year and I felt like I could hold the same pace for another 5K (as I will have to do in two weeks). I can tell that my strength is there as I felt good on the uphills, but was not able to get the turnover on the downhills. More striders are in order I suppose. Good ideas for next race. Good blog turnout. 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th,and 10th. Results are Posted HERE
T-17:59 (5:43) 177 ave max 186 I enjoyed a nice cooldown with Andy, Chad, Walter and Jon. After getting home, I wanted to get in a few more miles so rather than showering and running later, I immediately left and ran 6 more miles. I was out of fuel and dragging, but not sore. Good week of running (70 miles) despite a stressful week of work. Horray for the weekend.
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