Finally made it back to the RAP River Run 5k.
Thomas and Andy came with me. They had a 10K this year also starting at 6:30, with the 5K starting at 7:30 (glad it didn't start at 8:00!). Was getting warmer (but still not too bad) and a bit humid.
Andy was going to just run it for fun and Thomas was going to race it (he'd missed about a week of training due to some braces related oral surgery but has been getting in some good training recently).
Made my way through the thick starting crowd. Thomas was a good bit ahead of me. Eric from Mitchell cross country was there also and he had a good sized lead on both of us.
About a 1/4 mile into the race I suddenly felt really good and made up some of the initial weaving time. Course is nice and shaded as it heads north up Grand Blvd. Finished first mile in 6:13. Shortly into the second mile I was not holding the same pace and was struggling a bit to get back into the 6:30's. Finished the second mile in 6:35.
Nice thing about 5K's is they are over pretty quickly but it can be tempting to take it easy in the third mile. I passed a few runners then caught up to Thomas. I told him to come and stay with me but he told me to go ahead without him (ok, he didn't really say that but he made it clear he was not going to stick with me). I passed a couple more runners. A person on the side called out "400 meters left". Finish line was a straight shot from there and pretty soon I could see 19:40something on the clock. I picked it up and ran faster trying to slow down the clock but it just seemed to speed up. But fortunately I was still able to beat it before it turned 20:00.
Thomas was not far behind at 20:19.
Larry Smart was there today and ran 19:07 so he took first place masters award and I was awarded 1st place "Grand Masters". Eric ran 19:27 but was in a tough age group so took 4th. Andy took it easy and ran a decent 24:07
After the race I ran about another 1 mile for a cool down, stayed for awards, and in addition to the GM award, won a door prize drawing for $50 gift card to Pet Spa - maybe get Stella a mani-pedi
|