52F, north wind 10-15. Close to perfect running weather, just a little breezy.
Well, I won my first race. It was an ok turnout, a bit over 100 people maybe. Looking around at the starting line I didn't see any of the usual suspects that win these local events so I made sure to listen to the directions just in case. Fortunately they did a great job of marking the course and had people out there directing. They definitely needed that, as they had to cram 5000 meters of race into a pretty small area around the zoo.
I started out in 1st right away and just built a lead, maybe won by a minute or two. Abilene isn't exactly a runner town, obviously, if I can win. Also, I think maybe a fourth of the participants were running with dogs. It really all just depends on who decides to show up to these things and no one did today. It kinda sucked the last mile, because I could've used someone to push me a bit. Don't get me wrong, I was winded but there was probably some coasting. My last .05 miles was the same pace as the rest of the race.
I'm a little conflicted as to whether I call it a PR. My splits on Garmin were 6:20, 6:20, 6:27, 0:17 for 3.05 miles, so it measured short. My AP was 6:22 today per Garmin but 6:17 per Garmin on my PR in March. However, the course had a ton of tight curves and hairpin turns that could've easily caused the Garmin to shortchange the distance, and the runner's club (that puts on the races) usually gets it right. Here's what I'm talking about...
I'll stick with my old 19:41 as a PR as I just don't feel like Garmin would've been that far off, even with all the crazy turns. The cool part about it all was winning anyway - I got a $25 gift card to Academy, a free 1-hour massage and a mug. Fun morning, and I think it woke up my legs, finally. | 
