I had forgot that I was going to race on Monday for most of last week. On Saturday I remembered, but did not adjust any training. Sunday was a rest day.
So I woke up on Memorial Day and was not sure I wanted to run or if I was going to register. I registered with about 5 minutes before the race (I had warmed up).
I have been involved with this race for 12 years. I run the course all the time. There are many high school runners in it (since the race is a fund raiser for the track team).
I felt pretty good. I had a oatmeal packet an hour and half before the race. No gu today.
I first mile is wickedly fast. It is down hill, it has lots to stupid young runners pushing the pace (I was that dumb once). I hit the first mile marker at 5:33, and I was hanging back. When I got to the bottom of the hill, we went to work on picking runners off. I probally caught 7 runners in the next mile and a half. My second mile was at 6:25. Mile two is all up hill and is hard to get a good split. For mile three, I pushed it hard. 6:24 with the .1 I have not ran that hard in a while (that is how I use to race--all guts all pain). But I got passed by Darin at the last stretch so I placed third in my age group. I competed against a grundle of athletes that I had coached, some beat me for the first time ever.
So not expecting much from todays race, I ran my fastest 5k in the last 10 years. A PR!! I noticed that I had run a sub 18:30 as one of my goals.
I did not cramp at all. I have to run a little more calm at the first to keep from cramping, so that paid off for me. I thought the lead group was going to split more than they did and fall back, but they did not.
I was pleased with the race today and it is a blessing to be able to be run. | 