First off, i wanna start off by saying i measured this course online and it appears to be a touch short, maybe closer to 3 miles...regardless, i just show up and run races so if it is billed as a 5k, who am i to question that? that being said, i felt like the pace i ran was accurate to a 5k. got up early and drove to webster city, always try to do this race, they changed up the course a lot this last year, and its definitely for the better, a lot faster. very good weather for thanksgiving in iowa, 40 degrees at racetime with south winds, got up to mid-60s (record highs!) by afternoon. gun went off, and within the first 800 meters it was a 3 man race, this other guy and i decided to run down the leader together and we battled, we caught the leader about 2 miles in and all ran together til about 800 to go when the pack blew apart, the leader dropped off and the other guy i was with took off, i had battled and answered several surges all race long, it was a very strategic battle, but i couldnt cover his last move and he put 15 seconds on me to win, i came in second with my 2nd fastest clocking ever--16:43, i was 5 seconds from a PR. no splits on the course so i just have the overall time, but i am obviously very happy with that. felt wonderful running, had a lot of range as far as being able to surge and pace. only downside is the course was maybe a bit short, and i was also so close to PR-ing that it would have been nice to knock off 6 more seconds and set a new personal best, my 5k best has stood for 3 years now..its time for it to fall. In other news, my 11 year-old brother ran as well and in this his first 5k ever ran 23:40, a very impressive and surprising time given he just woke up and ran. i was very proud of him, he maybe has a future in this sport!
| 