Notes
Another year, another sub-60, and my second-fastest clocking, thanks to cool weather and cloud cover! Went with my tried and true method of going out around 6:00 pace, although the first three miles honestly felt way faster. I definitely did not feel conservative at all, and actually was afraid that I was pushing too hard and it would come back to bite me later. But somehow I sped up in the third mile without any increase in effort, and ran well from 3 miles on.
The hill workouts I have been doing seem to be working because I wasn't too affected by them today. My fourth mile is the second fastest I have ever run (only going 3 seconds faster in 2011 when I ran 54:14), and my 7th mile was only 6 seconds slower than what I ran in 2011. I actually ran my fastest 6th and 9th miles today too.
Went out with Brett Smith for the first quarter mile or so, but he pulled away on the very first hill and I felt like I was close to the edge so I didn't push to try to stay with him. Spent the next few miles jumping from pack to pack and trying to stay out of the wind. Felt good on the hills up Valley View, and ran a good comfortably hard pace down the hill after 4. I didn't feel like I was destroying my quads this year. Kept a good pace through 6 miles, and still felt pretty good up the hill at 10k.
Right around 10K I saw Brett about 50m ahead of me and I knew I could catch him if I worked hard. Spent the next few miles just trying to gain ground, inch by inch. I also saw Bergen Elite runner ahead of me, so I really wanted to beat him too. I finally caught them both a bit before 9 miles. I was somehow still feeling good and able to push, so I maintained a hard charge until I saw the finish. With about 200m to go, some kid flew by me, and I knew I wouldn't be able to maintain that pace, so I let him go. Then another kid passed me, so I shifted into high gear and passed him back, and then caught the original kid and outkicked him too. Very happy with my finishing speed today and excited to have run under 55 minutes and logged my 2nd fastest Boilermaker ever.