Woke up this morning at 3am and couldn't get back to sleep so decided to watch Kipchoge's extremely impressive and inspiring world record at Berlin - 2:01:39, are you kidding me? Crazy.
Had to be in Fort Collins on the bus by 5:30am anyway, so I figured I'd just stay up after watching that. Buses took us up Poudre Canyon in the dark, always fun to watch the sun come up in the canyon over the mountains. I have done this half before and wanted to do it again, but with the recovery from injury this spring, I decided I wasnt ready to race a half yet. Goal was to see what I could hit for 5 miles after my strong 10k two weeks ago. Warmed up on a hiking trail road for 2 miles, beautiful as the sun was rising and I was all by myself in nature - pretty cool.
Went out super strong and kept a quick turnover - I wanted to push the pace as much as possible. I started in 3rd place and stayed there the whole way, finishing in third pace. The course is downhill and drops about 200 feet over the 5 miles so that helped a little, but I found one of my fastest miles was mile 5 which had very little downhill and a little small uphills, so that was encouraging. Here are my splits:
1 - 5:36.4
2- 5:39.2 (11:15)
3 - 5:42.6 (16:58 for 3 miles, was at somewhere near 17:30 for 5k)
4 - 5:43.0 (22:41 for 4 miles, one of my better 4 mile splits all-time)
5 - 5:40.3
total - 28:22, 5:40 avg pace
Was at around 28:11 for the 8k, which is one of my better times for 8k, puts me back in my college fitness level where I only got down there a few times. Would be in the top 3 on the team today actually with that time.
Overall, I was super happy with this effort. I feel like the turnover was good and even through the inevitable rough patches, I hung on to a solid pace and continually re-found it. My splits show real good consistency, they were all grouped within 7 seconds of each other - a very good sign of my fitness level. I think I could have set a new PR at 10k today, but hopefully I can get that in three weeks' time when I am back in Iowa.
Cooled down for 4.5 miles - just enjoying and taking in the beautiful sights of the canyons. Got a cool little trophy for 3rd overall. Good day!
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