3rd Overall, 2nd place male, 1st place masters
Since yesterday's race was rained out, I looked for a race nearby for today. They had bib pick up and registration yesterday at American Running company, so signed up there.
Was hoping for the cooler weather of yesterday morning, but today it was back to typical warm and muggy. Race start time was 7:15 so still slightly dark. Race starts on the side street next to the original Hooters location, heads north up to Drew Street, then takes a right onto Drew where one lane of traffic is coned off. It's a little over half a mile, on a slightly uphill (38 feet), not too bad to start out on and a nice little downhill for the return trip.
For most of the first mile I did not look at my watch but just sort of kept up with the back of the lead pack and slowly passed a few here and there. Looked at my watch a little before the 1 mile marker and saw I was on a good sub-20:00 pace, finished the first mile in 6:17. My fastest mile for quite some time.
Headed south down a street off of Drew until taking a left onto a small street going on a block through a neighborhood before coming out back onto the road leading to Drew Street. Still holding onto a decent pace but had slowed down a bit, now about a 6:50 for the second mile, then my pace seemed to slip further and I was struggling to get back under 7:00. I was following a woman in an orange top (very fit and somehow managed to keep her hair in place perfectly and all make up in place), she was running next to a guy and they seemed to be running together.
But, when we got to the 10k/5k split, the guy headed onto the 10k course. The woman was the only one that I could see in front of me (there was another guy way up in front but I hadn't seen him for some time).
I followed the woman trying to lock onto her pace but she was slowly pulling away. Turned left off of Drew back down the street we started on with the downhill. I was able to slowly get back under a 7:00 pace, down to 6:54
Then, made the last turn into the parking lot where they had the finish arch. Watch showed 2.96 miles, so a little bit short but regardless, I was still 3rd place. First place guy was 17:49, and the first place woman was 19:27.
They had beer, chicken wings (two types) and a few other assorted refreshments. It was a pretty fun race, and now can't wait to run another 5k. Next up will be the PHSC Bobcats 5k in two weeks, hopefully get Jacob to run with me.
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