Notes
This race was the BC 5k championships, so it brought out a lot of fast folks. Lot of familiar faces and friends, so I knew who I should try to key of off. I haven't run this race since 2009, so I was surprised that there were no km markers, since there always have been in the past. Maybe that's a good thing, so I could just focus on running by feel and not let my watch hold me back.
I was thinking that I lined up a bit too far back based on who was around me, and I ended up boxed at the start and I felt like I was jogging. Maybe I lost about 5-10 seconds, but not a big deal since the first km is fast anyway with a long downhill for the last half. I started passing people about 500m in who went out way too fast. I kept hearing, "Go Tim!" so many times in the first 2km, so I was hoping it wasn't my buddy Tim getting ready to smoke me. It turns out it was an older guy, and I kept both Tims at bay the entire race. Since we go down, of course we have to come back up. I passed 2 people on a short but noticeably steep uphill, and Dylan Wykes was waiting at the top of the hill keeping and eye on his athletes. It is pretty damn motivating to hear an Olympian shout out your name, so that was perfect and gave me a boost before the next long flat stretch before a bunch of annoying turns. I was passed by a VFAC (local racing team) gal and some other guy here, but got them later on. I rounded a big turn at around 3.5-4km and took out a 2:50 marathon gal. She was having a rough one. That's when I started to push a bit and I wasn't able to keep track of how many people I passed, but it was quite numerous. Dylan was at the end of that mini hill again and yelling at me to give 'er and I started booting it like made home. Too be honest, I think my kick was way too huge, so I left some time out there. Not a big deal though, since I know 5ks take quite a bit of practice to get the pacing right and I have another shot coming up. I heard some people yelling my name right before the finish, but had no idea who they were since I was in such a daze just trying to get across the line in one piece.
I know I can run faster than this, but I'm super-pumped that I ran so well for a rust-buster with minimal workouts under in my legs.
I joined the Mile2Marathon crew for a speedy cool down. One guy who finished just ahead of me remarked that he thought he could run a faster 5k at that moment. I felt the same way, so I guess we both didn't give it our all. We ended up on the track as part of our cool down and saw Lanni Marchant and Natasha Wodak killing a workout. We were all think WTF, because Wodak just won the 5k. Then we see the owner of one of the running store and his crew smoking all these barefoot strides as well. We were all cool with just chilling though.
Awesome BBQ at the end, which is the big draw for this event.
No splits, but this is what the GPS track shows:
3:25
3:37
3:55
3:35
3:38
The first and third were pretty decent descents and ascents, so I think that was consistent pacing and effort.