Notes
Weather wasn't too crazy, quite sunny and there was a headwind going out. This helped cool me but obviously still slowed me down especially since I was gapped by a small group ahead so had no one to break the wind. I really need to focus on pushing harder from the start and sticking to a group.
I could tell with warmup that the race wasn't going to be the greatest as my legs were feeling heavy and overall I I was just feeling fatigued. I started off the first half kilometer at a good pace but gradually slowed to 4 minute pace. I maintained this until the turnaround at which point I wasn't feeling horrible but at the same time I had no desire to push the pace. By the end of the 3rd km I finally decided to take advantage of the wind behind me and to push a bit. I passed a few people the back half and it seemed like my legs were responding ok to an increased effort. By the end of the 4th km my breathing had accelerated and I again upped the pace. Finished the last 500m around 3:42 pace and kicked in the last 200m in about 42 seconds.
I didn't completely destroy myself but am pleased that I did put up a bit of a fight to at least get under 19:40 and not settle for just being under 20:00. I knew going in my right hip was a little tight - not sure if it dates back to deadlift day or just from the run yesterday - so I didn't want to risk injury by killing myself at the end. Unfortunately I still may have overdone it a bit as my upper right IT band was really sore during cool down and my whole right side quite wonky.