69F, 90%, raining. Hootenanny 5k this morning. I met up with Preston (I Just Run) and their foreign exchange student, Polina. We hung out for a bit, then I did a ~20 min warmup run w/ strides.
I started out ok and hit a 5:47 for mile 1, which I think was a bit downhill. I ran with the other second place guy for a half mile or so and we talked about how we were glad there was someone ahead, since it was dark and hard to see the signs. Mile 2 was uphill (6:06), and I passed the first place guy here...now I was the one that needed to pay attention to where I was going. We hit the school right at the mile 2 marker, and I saw my lead had grown. I was feeling pretty decent to start mile 3, and came to a 'T' in the road but there was no sign. I guessed and turned right. Started slowing down once I realized I'd done it again and had gone the wrong way. I saw the 2 guys behind me had followed; they were a good 50m+ behind. I randomly cruised through the neighborhood and wound up back at the school again, having already run more than a 5k. From there, I followed the crowd and saw the turn I missed. Just kinda cruised in from there. Mile 3 was 6:18, mile 4 was 6:40 (to add injury to insult, I rolled my ankle in mile 4 and now it's puffy and hurts a bit), and then another 2 minutes to the finish for 4.34 miles. I don't know what eventually happened to the other 2 guys...
From there, I decided I'd try to run with Preston for his last couple miles of the 10k around the lake, since I'd basically just had a 2-mile cooldown along the 5k course. So that was fun, at least. Then a long, hydroplaney drive back to SA.
I still would definitely not have broken 18. I actually felt good too, but the pace was not there. Hopefully I can still run on my puffy ankle tomorrow...
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