After almost turning around and heading home I was able to track someone down to find the start of the race. Since I was just a kid they've run the race along the lake. The new course threw me for a loop because I had been visualizing a completely different course the past few days. Since the temps were the same as the dew point and humidity was 100% I figured it wasn't going to be a PR kind of day anyway, I'd just make it an aided tempo run. The event is your typical small town 200-300 person field. You could look around and kind of pick out who your competition might be. The 5K and 10K follows the same route until the turn for the 5K. I decided to build into this race thinking 6 minute miles might be a good goal pace, plus I didn't want to get sucked into the 5K race. The 1st mile went according to plan - 6:00 min on the dot (although, it felt harder than it should have). I was in 4th place and saw 2 runners quite a ways up front. I figured they had to be running the 5K, I was right. So it was just myself and one other runner in contention for the win. I moved into 3rd place just before the mile marker. The 2nd mile was a long steep climb all the way up. I split a 6:19 going uphill into the wind. The slow 2nd mile let 2nd creep up on me, but when we got to the top of the hill I maintained the same effort and he slowly dropped back again. Mile 3 was a big down hill and I split a 5:47. I was able to put a lot of distance between myself and 2nd place. I entered the village town of Rockdale that took me up some steep back roads, but then gave me the steep downhill right back again splitting a 5:57 for the 4th mile. I was able to get a visual on how far I was leading with a u-turn in part of the course, but when I made the turn I didn't see 2nd place. I figured he must have dropped out. On the flat gravel trail I saw a runner in front of me that looked like 2nd place! Sure enough it was, so I picked up the pace to catch him. I split a 6:02 on the slippery gravel for mile 5, but the trail became a little more packed for the last mile, so I was able to pickup the pace enough to pass the guy with about a 1/2 mile to go. I mentioned he took a wrong turn, but he was certain I made a wrong turn! The last mile I just focused on running an even effort to the finish splitting a 5:52. When 2nd came into the finish he must have noticed his GPS showed him being short on distance so he asked if he could finish out the distance on an alternate course. When he got back he was still the 2nd place finisher and the officials didn't DQ him. So, I'm sort of glad I was able to pass him back again otherwise I may have wound up 2nd. All in all the race was a nice tempo workout. I finished about 1 1/2 minutes faster than my 10K 2 weeks go in the triple digit temps. Although, this race was humid it wasn't nearly as hot. I finished without feeling dizzy and was happy I got a nice workout in. The official results show I ran a 35:40, but my Gamin says 36:06, which is consistent with my splits. The distance on my Garmin only shows 6.02. I might have lost some reception on the trail, but I'm a little confused to how they timed me at a 35:40. I guess the extra seconds make up for all the times my watch has shown a faster time than the official results. All in all a nice tempo workout for me. It's so much easier to do those workouts in a low key race than all on my own. 3 mile warm-up and 4 mile cool down
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