Notes
Great race today! Exactly what I was going for. I figured I'd go out at 5:25 pace and see what happened. First mile I was dialed in and it was surprisingly easy to maintain the pace. I decided early on I would dial up the intensity for the second mile. I did so, still feeling quite fresh at the 1 mile mark. Grinded away at the harder effort through the second mile, still feeling good but starting to fatigue a bit. But, I had Tom and Jake in my sights the entire time and figured I'd try to reel them in. At some point in mile 2 Tom passed Jake, and it looked like he was slowing a bit. Not much but within reach.
It felt like I would fizzle out from the effort it took to reach Jake, but I attempted nevertheless. I got to him at ~2.5mi. I was able to stay ahead but not by much. After the final right turn, at ~400-600m to go, Jake was able to pass me back. But I stuck right with him, and 15-20s later I felt almost a second wind and was able to put the hammer down, passing back. Just missed the 17m mark but I'll take it.
I feel like I have a 16:40 in me right now. The course, while not tough, was a little worse than expected, and combined with the heat was a little slow. Tom, who's typically a metronome, was off his goal pace by 20s, as was our other teammate Mark, and of course Jake was not loving the heat and had a bad day. Also, that "second wind" I had at the end, I'm pretty sure I had that a good bit earlier. My race had more spurts of grinding rather than prolonged grinding. The first two miles were a strong steady pace, so it seems I've gotten that race instinct back rather quickly, but I still need a bit more experience to see how hard and long I can truly dig. But, goal acquired, baseline established, and much progress to come.