Today's race went very well. I confirmed that my fitness is better than my 5k two weeks ago indicated, as I ran close to the same pace for a race 3k longer.
The weather was great--it was raining both before and after but during the race it was a dry, pleasant 45-50 degrees with some (but not too much) wind. The course was very flat but had four 180 degree turns which are obviously not ideal but didn't seem to slow me down too much.
My pacing and ability to react to slow paces and other runners was phenomenal. After hitting the first mile in 5:28, I began running with a pack of about five other runners. I tucked into the the pack and we hit mile two in 5:39 which was way slow. I immediately made a move and dropped the entire pack save one runner (who ended up beating me by over 30 seconds) and hit mile three running solo in 5:27.
I could feel myself starting to relax a bit during the fourth mile so I thought this mile would surely be much slower. With nobody around me it was hard to push the pace, but I heard footsteps and that kept me motivated enough to come in 5:35. In the first minute or two of the final mile I was passed but still making up ground quickly on some runners up ahead. The final 180 degree turn was with about 400 meters to go, and after getting around the turn I was able to pass the runner who passed me and take it home to the finish line. The final mile ended up being 5:19 for a nice, round 27:30.
I still have much work to do to be where I'd like, but this was a marked improvement over my last race and I'm excited to see that trend continue.
Race Results: http://results.active.com/pages/displayNonGru.jsp?pubID=3&rsID=89952
No comments:
Post a Comment