In Louisiana this week on business--saw a local 5k in Eunice, LA which is just up the road from lafayette where I am staying. It is their first annual Jingle Bell Rock N Run 5k. I saw they were chip timing it and offering prizes to winners, so I had hope that it may be competitive--but the registration also talked a lot about jingle bells and costumes, so I was a little wary of whether it was a fun run or a 5k where I could try harder. Turns out there wasn't a ton of competition, but there were a few other serious competitors there, they just weren't super fast. 6 pm start--dark and warm and humid (72 degrees!). I started off out front and lead wire to wire--it was pretty neat, they had a police escort paving the way which I followed the whole race--When I close my eyes, I can still see flashing blue lights as it was pretty bright. I felt a little sluggish, but decent--went through first mile in 5:25. Weird because that is the same exact time I hit last weekend in the 5k in Clinton. 2nd marker was a little long, I clocked 5:54, but was probably more in the 5:45 range, final 3.1 was 6:22, so likely 5:45 and change. I won by 3 minutes and it was a time trial from the start, so I had no need to push, but I tried to keep an honest pace and my final time was 17:42, almost a spitting image of last weekend's 5k. I think I may get one more race in on sunday before resetting my training cycle. Neat local 5k, met some cool people and even went on a cooldown with the guy who got second. Turns out for an award, I got a $50 gift card to walmart! Can't beat that--its as good as cash!
| 