I began with a bit more than a mile warmup to make sure that I was okay to run. No major problems, but I felt better with my eyes focused downward. I didn't have any expectations for this race because this is the first I've run in a week. I did start off too fast--my first mile was 7:51 and I was shooting for 8:30. I blame it on nerves. My second mile was slightly under 8, but during the 3rd mile I slowed down to run with this kid (he looked about 10 or 11) who was having trouble. He was doing the old sprint, sprint, sprint, walk walk, sprint routine. I made him run with me for about 1/2 mile and just talked to him a little. I couldn't tell if he was nervous that I was yelling at him to stay with me, but he did at any rate. Then he split off because he was doing the 5K. The third mile was about 8:30
I did another slower mile (8:30) and then at mile 4 I wanted to get ahead of a pack of runners that passed me while I was running with the kid. I picked up the pace to catch up and passed about 5 people. During the last 1.2 2 of those people passed me again, and I just didn't care enough to stay with them. But when a short, squat man tried to pass me, suddenly I cared enough to pick up the pace and keep in front of him. At the end I saw the little kid from before cheering for me and I just pushed to the end because I didn't want to get passed again. The little kid took first in his age division! I took the first place trophy in my age division, but I don't really count it because the overall winner was my age, so I will give myself 2nd. I don't know how many runners there were, but I will update when the results are online. I know the number of 10K runners was small compared to the number of 5K runners. I did a really slow cool down before the awards were announced.
I'm dizzy right now. My eyes are just not focusing properly. I will try to take a nap today and then assess how I feel tomorrow morning and run accordingly.
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