Well I didn't quite hit the Sub-20 mark today but it was a decent effort.
20:19 beats my old PR by 50 seconds.
The race had 111 runners, several high school and a few college kids. I wasn't familiar with this course so I got there a little early and ran the course as a warm-up before the race. I thought it would be more hilly but it really just had some rolling low hills.
The first mile of the race has a decent uphill climb for the first half mile. I started out about 10th in the pack. At about the half mile mark I was running about a 6:15 pace but decided I needed to slow down a little ending the first mile in 6:27. The second mile was mostly flat. The main pack had run out in front of me but three guys were starting to fade from the main group. I passed two of them on this mile. I ended up running a a 6:34 on this mile and thought that was good enough. The third mile was almost all an uphill climb, ever so slightly, and just enough to make me slow down a little. I didn't really realize I had slowed to a 6:44 pace until I hit the 3 mile marker and saw the time on my watch (uh..oh...I'm in trouble). I did pass another guy or two on this mile. No one ever passed me in the race so I was kinda running alone the whole way. You couldn't see the finish line until right at the 3 mile mark and at this point I started to kick running the last .1 in 32 seconds. 20 seconds off my Goal but still a 50 second PR. I'm sure I can hit my goal on the next 5K.
I'm thinking the warm-up was a little too much since I was dripping with sweat at the end of it. It was about 75 degrees and very humid. My legs didn't feel like they had much spring in them after the warm-up.
3 Warm-up miles and 1 cool-down mile.
Callie (my daughter) also ran today and won 3rd in her age group. She took it very easy and was just running for fun... Her legs are getting much better. | 