Today was my first non-Striders 5k in probably 3-5 years or more. Even though I am just barely hitting peak mileage and have done minimal speedwork, I was hoping to break my high school PR of 16:53. Given my marathon mindset, I tend to go out too slow, so wanted to do 5:05 or 5:10 first mile and hang on from there. Warmed up with Marci and Jeff Shadley. There were some decent runners (a bunch of HS kids, and a recent college grad who did a 27:00 8k). The race annoyingly started 15 minutes late. Mile 1 went out fast like I hoped, though it is definitely downhill. I was in about 11th place at the 1/2 mile mark and about 8th at the mile- 5:10. Perfect, though Jeff had fallen a bit behind so we couldn't trade half miles. Mile 2 is flat, then uphill, then flat. I was running by myself, about 10 seconds behind the lead pack. A few guys fell off pace and I passed them, moving into 6th. Mile 2 was 5:28- slower than I hoped even with the uphill. I caught a young guy here and he got right behind me. I tried to put some distance, but he wouldn't drop. With about a half mile to go, he surged and caught another young guy just in front of us. I did my best to reel them in, but couldn't quite make it. Mile 3 was 5:23- slight uphill, but still a bit slow. I felt I could maintain this pace forever, but didn't have a higher gear. Last .11 was 32 sec (5:01 pace). Total time was 16:35- 18 second PR, and 6th place overall. I'm pretty happy with my time- I think with some speedwork I can take another 15-30 seconds off. Jeff was just over 17 min. We grabbed a water, and I felt completely recovered within a minute or two- probably a typical experience for a marathoner after a 5k. If this were a 10k, I'm sure I would have caught at least 2 more guys. Ran back .5 mile and saw Marci- she was thinking she would run 30 min, but shattered her old 26:00 PR with a 25:09- nice job, babe! Now off to food and fireworks. Happy 4th, everyone!
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