What to say about this one...been watching the weather all week and it appeared like it would be 38 at the start and 90% rain chance, 38 is tough cuz it is the cutoff for shorts/tights for me. just before race time i looked and it was 42, it felt decent as well so the wind chill was minimal, maybe only 40, rain was light too. just about perfect for this time of year. (I love running in the rain..even cold rain). so i went with shorts, racing top, arm warmers, gloves and hat. Got started pretty good out the gate, about five of us guys got out together. answered several surges from the other guys in the early miles as they were keeping me honest...first mile, i was kinda shocked, 5:05, a little faster than i anticipated but i think the mile marker was off a little bit. 2nd mile was 5:39.6, which the marker was accurate for 2 miles but long compared to the first mile, so the 2 mile accurate split was 10:45, a very decent split. at this point there were 2 leaders out front and a chase pack of me and 2 other guys, i made my decisive move from the chase pack at this point and tried to pick off at least the 2nd place guy, plus i knew a pr was close so i wanted to finish strong. last 1.1 was 5:38.9, finished 3rd place and was pleasantly surprised to see 16:23 flash on the clock.definitely gave it all i had and poured my guts into that last mile.
I was ecstatic, still am. I never thought id PR in december, but it was ok weather and i love the rain. still got some bounce in my old shoes. The course may have been a little short, i heard several guys complain about this, and in measuring it quick, it indeed probably was a touch short, either way, i ran way too good to complain about a short course and to not count this as a PR. like ive said several times, im a runner, i show up and run, its the race directors job to worry about distance. i do this for fun, so if its billed as a 5k race, i will count it as such. plus, this course was so hilly that im even more impressed with my time. even if it was short, id of still been well under 16:45, possibly even PR territory. I plan to smoke all my pr's next year anyways, so this one wont stand for long, in the meantime im just gonna enjoy a great effort and a solid race! Very stoked right now!
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