Not necessarily a great race, but a good learning experience. Mile shakeout at 4:45, came back to the room, had a bowl of cereal and a banana, grabbed my gear, some liquids, and headed out with Ethan. My legs felt good when we got on the course. I wasn't really nervous, there did seem to be some quick people. Apparently a couple people were FL national finalists which is pretty cool, now I've raced against more than just Garek, Conner, Connor, and Talon. I got on the starting line, and I felt completely ready. I noticed that there were 5 minutes left until start, yet the line was barren. Speakers come on and I'm told the race has been pushed back 30 minutes. That really put a damper on my attitude, but oh well. 30 minutes later and we're off. I was in the outermost right box, which is good because that's the inside for a lot of the turns on the course, and the course had a LOT of turns. So I don't get out too quick, towards the back. I hug the turns, problem is people were basically walking the curve! I got pushed back pretty bad, but I told myself not to make my moves until 3k. 5:24 at mile 1. I started moving around 2600m in, and passed quite a few people. 5:26 mile 2. People just wouldn't let me pass, and I lost focus around here. I kept passing people, but I'm not proud of my 3rd and 4th mile. 4 miles at 22:21 I think. I still wasn't really focused, I had kind of resigned, but then I realized I could break 28, so I buckled down that last 1000m and finished 27:50. Cooled down for 12. Didn't even get close to top ten - I would have had to break 25:20! Winning time was a 24:19. Wowzers.
My two problems I had with this race were my warm up ended up being an hour before I ran, so my legs tightened up, and I honestly added at least 20 seconds to my time by having to basically stop/walk on turns because of people ahead of me. I'm happy with how I finished, but it would have been more beneficial to just have gone out quickly and not been pushed back. On the drive back Ethan told me about a 5k next Sunday. The only problem is its at 2PM. Weather looks cloudy for next Sunday though. I'll see how I feel but maybe I can finally get sub 16.
Easy run before dinner with Ethan and Nathan in the rain. Would have done 5 but it started raining really hard. Did a few very brief strides on the grass. Nothing felt tight or bad.
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