This was my "do over" for the race that I missed and overslept. It used to be called the Red Mule Labor Day 5K, but the date has been moved back (I might've mentioned this already).
Today was also Jacob's move-in day at FSU, so race first here in Brooksville (part way up to Tallahasee) then up to Jacob's dorm with the stuff he can't fit in his car.
It was decent enough for Florida August, maybe about 75ish degrees but soupy humidity. Did a short warm up before the race (about 0.75 miles including some quick strides). I'm thinking I should've done a little more warm up.
Race was mainly high school kids (at least 80% it seemed).
It's a one lane road that goes around a small lake, two full loops and then part of a third one then exit off onto a grassy trail for the last 0.2 miles. The start line is much wider than the road so you have to squeeze on pretty quickly.
My plan was to try to quickly go out too fast, get solidly under 7:00 pace and then try to hang on. Instead, the pace seemed to start at about 7:30 and I slowly worked my way down to 7:19 for the first mile.
Second mile was 7:16. But, there were patches where garmin said I was running an 8:20. It was pretty wooded so that might've thrown it off. Third mile said it was 7:23.
And then I hit the end, right about 3.0 miles exactly. The course often measures short on GPS but it has been repeatedly wheeled.
So, even though splits of 7:19, 7:16, 7:23 , my "official" pace was 7:04.
Not sure if I could've pushed a little faster had I known I wasn't that far off from sub-7:00 pace.
Oh well, try again soon hopefully. More warm up next time and banish any pre-race thoughts of "this is not my day".
Back on the road, then made it up to FSU about 1:00 pm, unloaded Jacob's stuff and took him on a Walmart run and then picked up his girlfriend then went to dinner at a BBQ place Jacob wanted to try.
With the early morning and the race, decided to stay over night instead of driving back 4 hours.
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