Pre-race: I wanted to race a 5k to see how I was doing with my training and was hoping to break 18:30. The race is in the evening held on a square and dead flat course. It was a cool evening with a stead rain. After doing my 2 mile warm up I made sure to line up at the front in the second row. Also racing were a few of my friends from track practice I forgot my watch so I was running blind (DOH) but it's only a 5k so not that big of a deal when my race strategy is run until it hurts and keep going. I was also relying on volunteers to call out the mile and 2 mile split so they may be a little off (especially when I look at the paces)
Mile 1 (5:32 pace). I went out fast with the lead pack of 4 others that broke apart at about the 1/2-3/4 mark into two leaders, two chasers and me chasing at about 5 seconds off the back. The first mile was mostly on a street that was being milled and resurfaced so the footing was a little rough in spots. Was very surprised by how well I felt at the mile mark
Mile 2 (6:00). Mostly uneventful and focused on keeping the 2 in front of me w/in reach. Mile 3 and 0.1 (6:09 pace) I was slowly reeling the 2 in front of me in and was able to pass them with about 1/2 mile to go and my job was to hold them off. I managed an ok kick to hold them off by about 5 seconds and to take third overall with a time of 18:21. My fastest 5k in since 2004 years and 40 seconds faster than my race two months ago. Track practices is paying off!! I was very excited how it went and pumped to run faster than I wanted to! I wish I had my watch so I could have had more confidence in my splits because I don't think I faded that bad at the end. I think the first mile may have been a little short which would make sense time wise but it's not that big of a deal. Plus the post-race party had extra pizza and were selling them at 5$ each, score!
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