Today was the annual Havasu Cross Country 5k fund raiser. Two of my boys (Chase and Cade) and Blake and I showed up about half hour before the 7:00 start. It was already 89 degrees. Blake and I ran one lap of the 2 lap course to warm up. The race is on a golf course and is a very tough 5k with twist and turns and hills and sandy and muddy areas. Last year I ran this in 20:21 and the fastest I've ever run it is 20:15. It is a very slow 5K.
The race starts with an uphill through sandy terrain for the first few hundred meters and really takes a lot out of your legs if you go out too fast. Of course a bunch of people always take off fast. After getting through this section, I was in 7th place. I quickly passed a couple guys and set my sights on the guy in 4th. He was already 50 m or so ahead of me. I gradually reeled him in and passed him just as we were finishing the first lap. The guy in 3rd had gone out with the 2 really fast guys who always beat me by a couple minutes. He was now fading though and was within 200m of me. I started gradually reeling him in and before I knew it I was right behind him. I could tell he was hurting so I gathered myself and went by him with some exceleration so he wouldn't have any ideas of hanging on with me. Now I had about 3/4 a mile to hang on. I was able to keep pushing all the way to the finish and finished with by best time on this course, 20:09, and 3rd place overall.
Blake actually ran a 5k PR! It will be interesting to see how fast he can run a more friendly 5k. Chase ran really well and Cade started too fast and ended up walking a lot of the second half.
Since I have done 100% of my running over the last 3 months SLOW, at a HR under 141, I wasn't sure if I would be able to run fast, but it looks like I got faster by running slow. Go figure????
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