Dunedin Kiwanis Midnight July 4 5K
I was on the fence about running this race but decided why not. Earlier this week I had had a bad run (Tuesday) and retried it on Thursday with much better results so thought I had a chance to do pretty good.
Weather was as expected, hot and humid, still up in the high 80's. Warmed up with easy running and a few strides. Strides felt better than expected.
Race started and for a little bit my watch did not show any pace so running completely by feel. Once it did lock on showed I was running like an 8:00 pace. Pace slowly got better. Drawbridge is about 2/3 into the first mile, have to be careful running over the steel grate section, but then you get the downhill on the other side (bridge is not very high, maybe 25 feet above the water). Finished first mile in 7:18. Then before not too long the fastest runners had already turned around (course is very simple out and back on the Dunedin causeway). Then the turn around, at which point the bridge looked very far away. The causeway is pretty dark, not many lights, brightest light is the drawbridge traffic light - fortunately green the whole time!
I had kind of given up at looking at pace and just wanted to hold my place and maybe catch up to any faders which I did , catching a few here and there.
Once over the bridge, it finally felt like the homestretch.
Kept on going steady and picked up the last 0.1 to near a 6:00 pace.
Splits were 7:18, 7:14, 7:05
Fairly recently I ran three miles in the neighborhood with splits like 6:43, 6:53, and 6:51, but tonight could not get under 7:00 for any of the miles. But that was in the neighborhood with no crowds, not late night and no pressure.
But, the plus sides for tonight's race was - got out there and did it, did not go out too fast, near perfect negative splits, did not give up, and finally 6:00'ish pace kick for last 0.1
Also, got first age group and saw my friend Dr. Keith - he got 1st in his age group, 2 years older than me.
Last year we were oddly in the same age group with me at 58 and he at 60 but this race has age groups not following the normal pattern of 50-54, 55-59 etc. Age groups here 51-55, 56-60, etc plus they've got 2 year increment age groups for the kids
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