Notes
The run felt good for my first race of 2015 and first race post-injury. I had hoped to be around 28:30 but the course was quite a bit hillier than I expected so I am happy with my time. The field was very strong - I ended up in 19th and I was battling the first woman (age: 40!) for the entire race.
The first two miles were basically flat-to-downhill and I just tried to run decently fast while conserving energy. The uphills started in mile 3 where I fell off the pace but was able to work the uphill sections. The fourth mile was straight uphill and I felt really strong (weights really paid off). I knew that I had to put some time/distance on the first woman because I would pull away from here on the uphills and she would catch back up on the downhill and the last 3/4 of a mile was downhill. I was able to pull away and then I started picking it up once the downhill started (I was running scared!). It felt good to be in a long, protracted duel with another good runner and she definitely delivered - though I managed to finish with ~6s of margin.
Also - this is officially a PR because I have only run one other 5-miler which was in the summer between senior year of high school and freshman year of college (2007).
From the chart in Daniels' book, I interpolated a Vdot value of 58 which equates to the following paces (per mile):
E/L: 7:02-7:58
M: 6:25
T: 6:04
The easy pace is consistent with what I've been doing and if I get into the 5k/10k plan before my next race these are the M and T paces that I will use.