AM: 500 Festival 10k. Good race for me. 70 seconds of my 10k split from Phily RnR and 80 seconds from stand-alone efforts. Almost 2 minutes faster than last year, and 6 minutes and 48 second faster than the year before that. I'll write a touch more later. I did make a move at mile 4 for third place (I couldn't catch the leaders who were easily a minute ahead at the end of the race), and put 18 seconds on 4th and 40 seconds in 5th.
REPORT: Got in 32 minutes of warmup, felt decent. Peeled off my warmups, and dropped my stuff in the gearcheck (loosely defined). Did a few leg swings and sized up the competition. Saw some gents that looked like they might be Indianapolis area college runners. I did a few strides in the starting area. Got off to a decent start. I eased off just a touch after we got moving and it looked like I had a lot more faster guys to deal with than I thought, but I heard some serious breathing from one or two. Got passed by 4-6 guys in the early miles, then I moved up to 5th around mile 3. I felt like I was working harder than the two guys I was running with in 3rd and 4th, but I knew I was in better shape than at least one of them and the other was a mystery.
Around mile 4 I decided to make a move even though my breathing was getting up there (legs felt fine). The 3rd guy dropped back to 5th and I decided to see if the 4th (now 3rd) guy would go with me, so I put a few seconds on him and he stayed somewhat close. But I kept pushing and I managed to spot him on some turns. Once I got the parkway I tried to keep pushing and by mile 6 I picked it up a bit more, finishing strong but not really with a kick (~5:15-5:20 for the partial).
The rich, chocolatey goodness: 5:48, 5:35? (missed the split I guess, but 11:20-11:25 for 2 miles), 5:52, 5:53, 5:42. 5:49, 1:03-1:04 (partial. took me a second or two to hit STOP because I haven't got used to switching off my Timex)
2 laps on the canal trail + a little extra (5.25 miles)
Met/exceeded the goals for the day. Pleased with my fitness. Thinking about my upcoming half in 3 weeks, and I am pretty sure I can run within a handful of seconds from what I did today (despite what the McMillian calculator says) if I make that a cutback week. Then there's that OTHER race 4 weeks from that.
PM: North side 5.8 miles, averaged 8:19
The crack in my toe won't quit. Had a blister that popped, then the skin broke on the underside crease of my big toe. I had to switch to ducttape + bandaid.
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