Good Race!
This entry was posted on 8/7/2011 12:05 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
Despite some of the most humid conditions of the summer, I managed to run my fastest 5k of the year. I did my normal warm up and was ready to go. Unfortunately, the race directors weren't quite ready and the race went off about 15 minutes late. The start of this race is always a little bumpy because it's narrow leading directly into a hard left turn. Plus a few little kids who had no business being up front jammed things up, hopefully getting pushed around the way they did maybe taught them a lesson.
Anyway, after the turn, I fell into my pace pretty easily. I was lucky today that I ran into Brian Prendergast before the race and he was hoping to run about the same time as me. We cruised through the first mile in 5:45, perfect and felt pretty good too. In the second mile Brian stayed with me through about 3/4s or so, but it really helped having him right on my shoulder, kept my pace honest. But at the one "downhill" block heading west down Chicago I took off. At the two mile mark I was @ 11:29 (5:43.) Now I'm starting to reel people in and feeling very strong. In the last mile I think I passed at least 6 guys. That always feels great, plus it helps you to keep the pace hard when you keep catching people. There was no 3 mile mark, but the last 1.1 was 6:17. Coming down the home stretch I had a little battle with one last guy. I passed him, but only just barely. Then in the last 50m or so, he surged and try to take it back. But I had enough left to get up on my toes and pass him for good right before the line. So my fastest 5k for this year was 17:46. With warm up and cool down, 7 for the day. I'm not sure what my overall place was, but I did win my age group again. I think this bodes well for Asbury next weekend. This coming week is a recovery week, so lots of easy running and lower volume should send me into Saturday feeling rested and strong.
Total for the week: 64
for the year: 1681
