Carlisle 5k today, my favorite race of the year cuz its my hometown event. my workouts werent indicating a breakthrough and i have struggled during my speedwork and those two signs were evident today as i had a hard time getting any kind of turnover throughout the race...especially when i needed it. one of my best friends, andrew, came down from bondurant to pace me the 2nd half. I tried to talk him into doing the whole thing with me cuz when we race together we feed off each other really well. in fact, last time we raced carlisle together we both PR'ed and both of those still stand today. he is training for a half though and insisted on pacing me. first mile I laid an egg, went through in 5:42. granted this stretch is largely uphill, in the past ive hit around 5:20. i just didnt have much pop coming out the gate. halfway through mile 2 i was about 10 seconds back of the leader, the same kid who has got 3rd 3 years in a row. andrew hopped in the race about 1.5 and became my rabbit. It was super nice to have a pacesetter because he was able to help me rise above my mid-race blues that have plagued my races lately. 2nd mile was 5:37, 11:19 at the 2 mile mark, 5:40 almost on the nose. andrew kept pushing me and did a wonderful job of being a pacesetter. for a while, the leader actually started coming back to me, but the lack of turnover bit me hard when i needed a burst of speed just after mile 2 entering the final smaller hills. i took the last mile in 5:44 and ran :31 for the .1 for a 17:36 clocking. Not a great time by any stretch, but a respectable time for the hot conditions on this course which many people find very difficult. Overall, i need to step back and ramp my mileage up while adding in some better speedwork if i plan to get below 16. I havent been close this summer, and i havent had any really great workouts or races yet. i'll finish out my summer season and then get back to the drawing board to figure out how to get where i want to go.
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