My 2nd attempt at the Childserve 5k this morning. Love doing this race because its such a great cause! (not to mention the course is pancake flat!). Course is very accurate as well, so its a true test here. Last year I ran a pretty solid 17:21, this year I was hoping sub 16:40. Conditions were great, mid-50s with not much wind. At the line there was one other guy, Vic Morales, who is a pretty good runner, I knew I'd have a challenge. Started off well, right on his shoulder, but after about 800, I let off the pace and let him have a lead, he was going out pretty hard or so the effort felt. Another kid stayed with me for around 1 mile. At the mile, I clicked a 5:19.9, a little slower than i'd like for what I'm trying to do, but my legs were not turning over very well I noticed. 5:30.2 2nd mile split, i tried to at least maintain my effort and not let Vic get any farther ahead. Soon after the first mile I had dropped the kid, so now the only goal I had was to chase down Vic. The last 1.1 I gave it a good effort and closed to within 10-15 seconds, but could never quite get em. Kind of bummed, cuz I was so close to running him down, but thats racing sometimes, today just wasn't my day. last 1.1 was 6:04,which is right near 5:23 pace, so I definitely picked it up both in reality and in perceived effort this last mile. I clocked a low 16:54, but the official results had 16:55, 5:26 pace. Not a bad race given the somewhat higher mileage this week, and the 26 second improvement on last year still shows I'm heading in the right direction (as last week I improved on last year as well). Hopefully, I'll be able to run a great time next week as the competition is really good and the course fast. PM- 5 miles in 34:48, 6:58 avg pace. ice bath afterwards
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