Favorite 4th of July 5k this morning with my brother Jon. We are both pretty out of shape. He has taken 6 weeks off after his track season, in which he ran 16:06, I took 2 weeks off as a cycle break and ate terribly! Needless to say, we had no expectations going into this one. We hoped to get under 18, but I'll be honest and say I knew that was a stretch goal given how the last 2 weeks off have been. Told Jon to go out smart and easy, and then rein everyone in if we felt good. Smart move! hit first mile in 5:57, started to move up, 2nd mile was downhill, hit it hard, 5:42, mile 3 started with a hill, the only one on the course, Jon was feeling good so he kept accelerating. I was pretty much cashed out, so I maintained and hit the final mile in 5:46. Jon finished 2nd with a 17:31, I hit 6th in 17:53. Super pleased with that effort - I felt holding 5:45 pace was pretty easy, all things considered, and that is a huge plus going into a training cycle off 2 weeks rest - 2 mile c/d, 6.4 total on the day
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