Notes
Marion Arts Festival 5k. I had been considering this double all week even though it would be really short recovery (~13 hours). But the race pays good money, never has very deep competition to win the money, and was only 5-10 minutes from my apartment. In previous years 1-2 solid runners show up to this race but it pays to the top 3 so I figured even if a couple could beat me tired I could still come home with $75 without running very fast.
As I lined up for the race I had a pretty good idea that Phil Young would be my main competition. And fresh I am confident I would probably beat him most of the time so I decided I would try to run with him and see if I could win the race for a bigger payday. We got out at a solid pace with another guy behind the two of us. At the mile the 3 of us were well clear of the field (I was glad to see no surprise studs). Right after the mile Phil checked his GPS watch (he said it was 5:04 after the race) he made a pretty hard surge to try to drop us. It worked on the other guy but I jumped on it since I assumed even if I couldn't beat him I would still end up 2nd if I broke. It turns out it was a short surge and by the time he settled back into a pace I was enjoying the faster rhythm and decided to go ahead of him. Before the race I had planned on just sitting and kicking but I decided to revise that plan since I was feeling good. A solid hill was coming up shortly after this and I could already tell Phil wasn't as good at hills based on a small one in the first mile, so I hammered up it a solid pace and put some distance between us. From this point on I had ~10-20 second lead and that didn't really change. During the last mile I really started to hurt and hoped he wasn't coming back on me. The last half mile is a long gradual uphill and I was not feeling good. But I checked over my shoulder a few times and the gap seemed to be staying consistent. So I won the race in 16:07 to get $275. It is kind of sad that time won that much money but this race has also been won in 15:04 so it just depends on the year. I was a little surprised it wasn't under 16. I felt tired but I thought it would be closer to 15:50. It is a hilly course though and after the race I did hear the GPS watch community discussing the course being around 3.2. Not that I pay much attention to that but it does make me feel a little better. Solid 2nd race of the weekend and I'm glad I decided to do it. It was nice that I knew quite a few people after the race too. I had hoped to run some afterward with Phil but I never really saw him again after we finished.
Note: This was my 6th race in 26 days. It might be time for a little break.