Notes
I don't think I could be happier with how this race went! This was the first race of the season and I'm coming off 5 days in NYC, so I wasn't exactly sure how things would go even though my runs have been good lately. I took the mindset that it could tell me something positive if the race went well, but a bad race wouldn't necessarily mean I was off track for my 2024 goals.
The race was delayed 10 minutes for the late arrivers so I got an extra warm up mile in. The start was pretty chaotic and jumbled since there were definitely some people right on the start line that probably should have put themselves farther back. After getting clear of that it was pretty easy to settle into a rhythm on wide open Main St. Like most recent shorter races, I didn't look at my watch and paced myself by feel. I could tell I went out a little hot so I pulled back a bit after maybe a quarter mile. From this point I started moving up in position as others let off the throttle too.
Going into the turn onto Midland I passed a group of 3-4 runners, which would be my last position change for the rest of the race. It did feel nice to not get passed the entire time except for the opening moments. After the turnaround I tried to pick it back up a bit to maybe catch the next person in front of me, but the gap was too big and I never really made much progress.
The way back to the finish was surreal. I was pretty much all by myself on the wide-open left side of the road with the entire pack of 1000+ over on the right. Several people cheered for me by name, but I couldn't pick out who they were. I also got a lot of random whoops and hollers that people give the leaders which was just really cool. I've never had an experience like that in a race before!
I felt like I started fading a bit down the stretch, but according to my watch data I still finished strong with a negative split. I was stunned to see the clock below 11 minutes as I approached the line! Since I finished seventh there was only a small group of us at the finish; giving each other fives and chatting about the race as others streamed in. It was by far the most camaraderie I've seen at a race finish line. And there was the added bonus of getting the notification that I even beat my mile PR!
Erin, Kelsey, and I stuck around for the post race festivities. I won a $20 Johns giftcard for winning my age group and there was a corgi wearing a St. Patrick's Day hat. Then we went and hung out at Old School Coffee for a couple hours and overall had a fantastic time this morning!