Nice friendly and actually quite big race in my local London Park. Lots of club runners -- a real running nerd fest (in a good way )-- and fast field. I imagine the winner will post a 15:xx. This is a series that takes place on Monday nights throughout the summer, so I am using them kind of as training runs to practice pushing myself and dealing with race nerves. I always get really nervous at these 5Ks for some reason, even though nobody really knew I was doing this and there was nothing at stake at all. I just wanted to do well.
Easy enough course. Totally pancake flat 2 laps on wide, traffic free park paved paths. Warm with a breeze, so perfect conditions, really I ran 22:02. Not quite as quick as I hoped, but this is my fastest time since 2007 (still a minute and 7 secs off PB ...how did I ever run that fast?). I put on a spurt at the end for a sub 22:00, amazingly finding a new gear I didn't realize I had, but not soon enough. Arg. Those 2 seconds. Oh well. Maybe next week, now I know the course. Not a fast time, but 7th woman over 30. 9th woman overall. 214 runners, not sure how many women. Missed out n a "top 7" medal by 2 places.
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