Notes
Another awkward race at Firecracker today. Not quite the feeling it once was when there were no expectations but to compete. Got out smoothly without getting out too hard. Was up near the lead by the mile in 4:55. Tim kinda got hit by a car shortly thereafter that the rest of us were trying to dodge because this old lady was an idiot and completely confused. Still tied for the lead when we turned off from the 5k group to head uphill. Tim and Steffens both attacked the hill a bit more than me because I still wasn't feeling too good at this point and haven't had nearly enough practice with hills lately. By the time we got to the top and flattened out a bit, I was down a good 30 to 40 meters. Still feeling not fresh I figured I had plenty of time to make up the ground. All of the the sudden, my right foot popped and went numb for a bit. Felt terrible and couldn't put much pressure on it. I thought about stopping to walk or dropping out but just kept running and it eventually turned to a dull pain in the foot. I could handle the thought of losing to Tim, even though I wouldn't be happy but I just couldn't handle the thought of losing to Steffens. I immediately set my eyes back up ahead and start trying to crack into the lead. I don't remember if the foot deal was right before or right after 2 miles but my 2nd mile was 5:25. The 3rd mile was 5:11 and was apparently fast enough to put quite a dent into their lead as I had almost caught up by this point. Once I finally caught them both, Tim let me go right past, and assuming that meant he felt terrible, I had no other option but to try to drop Steffens as soon as possibly because I didn't feel like I'd have much of a kick today. 4th mile split was 5:03 and I know I had at least a touch of a gap, but I didn't want to look back and give him any hope so I kept pushing. 5th mile was 5:12 including a steep downhill and then the gradual uphill that always hurts pretty bad. I was definitely cashed by this point but hoping to save up enough energy on the downhill to be able to hold off anyone gaining the last mile as I already started to hear people cheering for Tim. Didn't see a 6 mile split but was trying to pick it up and kick in because I had no idea how close they might get. Apparently that last 1.2 was actually a lot quicker than I thought because I closed that part in 5:45, so even if I only ran 5 minute pace to kick in would put my mile at 4:45 so probably a few seconds slower than that for the mile and a touch faster on the kick. Not a bad time for not feeling good and in retrospect possibly breaking my foot but still no where near what I was hoping for. One of these years I feel I can take down the record of 30:56ish. It's going to at least have to wait one more year. Luckily Tim made a hell of a move at some point to catch and drop Steffens and only finished like 15 seconds back of me, which is great progress for him for the fall.