Practice To Suffer So Racing Becomes Easy

I learned of this race through word of mouth.  It's a hidden gem if you ask me.  The course is run on a private farm.  It's the home course of Lake Side Lutheran High School.  It's all on grass and takes you through woods and over lots of hills.  Some of the hills were incredibly steep!  It really brought back old memories of Cross Country.  The temps weren’t too bad this morning because the sun stayed behind some clouds and we’ve got a storm system moving in.  It was windy, but I didn’t feel it that much because the course takes you turning in different directions.  I started off in the back of the pack to see how things would shake out with the 5K runners.  By the time we hit the mile marker I was in 2^nd place and could see 1^st place splitting a 6:29 1^st mile.  I wasn’t really concerned with splits on this course.  I came through the 2^nd mile in 5:35 and put some considerable distance between myself and the 3^rd place with that split.  By the time I hit mile 3 running a 6:11 split, I was within striking distance (30 meters) of the 1^st place runner. I was a little concerned that 1^st might be a 10K runner so, I wanted to make sure the gap wasn’t too big.  I made the turn to run the 10K as 1^st place went straight to finish the 5K.  Now I was all on my own with a monster lead as later learned I won by 20 minutes.  My 4^th mile was a 6:51 which was slow, but the steep hills disguise the effort associated with that split.  Mile 5 was 6:00 and I was feeling nice and strong.  For the 1^st time in a long time I noticed I was in good form and the body seemed to be perfectly in sync.  The last .96 was on cruise control with a 5:45 (5:59 mile average).  I didn't fight with this course I took what it gave me and I wound up feeling good about my effort.

I’m really glad I skipped out on sleeping in after the late night run to run this race.  It was also a lot of fun to run in spikes!  This was another win at a low key event without taxing my body.     

3.2 mile warmup 

2.4 mile cooldown 

Avg race pace 6:11