Race day baby. Had the majority of the crew show up, only 4 unplanned DNS so about what was expected. 1 mile warm-up on the canal. Hit the start line at 8 for a toasty morning race and sent it. Started off way too slow, hit the first mile in 5:26, but I was staying pretty close to the top dudes which made things confusing. Picked it up on the downhill bit of mile 2, still got dropped, but got back on pace with a 5:06. Hill at the start of mile 3 went much better than the time trial round, but still pretty rough. Got some momentum back on the flat stretch, closed hard down the last hill, hit mile 3 in 15:57 with a 5:23 split, opened up a little coming into the finish, but not much of a kick. Ran most of the race in no-man's land. Finished 37 seconds behind 5th place, 16 seconds ahead of 7th place. 1-mile barefoot cooldown back to the cars.
25 runners started, 25 finished, nobody got lost, I'll count that as a massive success. Round 2 next month, maybe I can go sub 16 on a good day. Fingers crossed.
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