My first ever 5 mile race. Went pretty well. The weather couldn't have been much better for May. The whole family went with me to the race. Race was held at the USF campus which is also near where the Moffitt Cancer Center is located. I warmed up for almost 2 miles with a few strides thrown in. I had been trying to get myself feeling motivated, although was having a slightly hard time doing so. I lined up near the front. The wheelchair race started, then five minutes later the rest of the race started. There is a guy, Matt, that started running with our running group recently who was also at the race today. He was going to go out at a 6:00 pace. I knew that a 6:00 pace was going to be a stretch for me but I wanted to see what would happen. Matt was way up in front of me.
First mile felt pretty good actually, and came close to 6:00 (6:01) according to my garmin, although it was slightly short of where the sign was, but not too far. They had water at each mile marker which was nice. Second mile I was still feeling pretty good and was in the 6:0x's for most of it. Slipped off pace just a little bit but was still happy with a 6:11. However, now I was way off from the mile marker and hit the lap button when I actually did pass the sign ( 0:21 ). Third mile was slightly hilly, and I usually have a hard time with the middle miles it seems (6:32). Sometime during this mile I caught up to Matt but he wasn't too far behind me.
Fourth mile I was able to bounce back a bit to a 6:20 pace. I was feeling better about the race at this point. For the fifth mile my legs were starting to burn a bit but I really wasn't suffering. But somehow I let my pace slip. I'm a little disappointed that I didn't push a little harder for the final mile. At the end of the 4th mile I had been trailing a girl who I finally passed. Then, there was no one in front of me (except for some guy who was very far in front of me). Jenny and the boys were cheering for me about a 1/4 mile from the end and I tried to pick it up as best I could. When I was about 20 feet from the finish line some guy cruised right past me, I sure wasn't expecting that, he must have really hammered it because I don't remember seeing him at and point during the race. So, while I might have been disappointed a little bit with the last mile, I did accomplish my goal of going out at 6:00 pace and seeing what happened, and I didn't totally fall apart.
Ended up with 2nd place for my age group. They had these polished rocks with the race logo and date as well as age group award markings for the prizes. Matt was about 40 seconds behind me and ended up with 1st place male in the cancer survivor category. After the awards we went to Busch Gardens since it was just five minutes away and we have season passes. We found some things there to cool us off. As the ride Sheikra comes down, it skims through some water and throws off a good spray, here it is just beginning to spray: 
The people on the ride don't get wet, but if you stand near it you do get wet, it's a pretty popular spot with kids who want to get drenched: 
**Official results posted: I was 2 seconds faster and moved from 26 to 20th place!
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