Strawberry Classic 5K
9th place overall, 1st age group (but 4th masters, tough crowd). I always seem to miss this race, so this year at the last minute signed up. Many runners from the Striders were there (although most were doing the 10k). We've been having a lot of nice weather recently but unfortunately the cool temps went away for the race.
Warmed up with a little over a mile of easy running then did a few strides for about 1.4 miles of warmup.
Starting mile was good. Slight downhill for the start (so slight uphill for the finish). Crowd thinned out pretty quickly and after about a half mile we were pretty much lined up in finish order for the most part. Was just under 7:00 pace and was feeling the heat, but pace stablized and hung on with 6:52 for the first mile.
Thought I might slow down for the second mile, but amazingly enough I did not slow down. Sped up slightly. The little hills on the course I think were helping. Stayed on pace through the second mile and did 6:46 for mile 2.
Still on pace into mile 3. It was looking like I'd get three sub 7:00 miles in a row for the first time since 2019.
As I turned the corner for the homestretch, Keith and Renee were standing there and Keith yelled out that someone was coming up behind me. I picked it up some but not enough and got passed by. It did make me speed up a bit more at least
6:52, 6:46, 6:57, 0.15@6:31
I felt stronger today than I have in a while.
Hung out for a bit after the race and was able to take home 3 quarts of Driscoll's Strawberries which were delicious.
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