Notes
It was an appropriately cold day for the Hot COCO 5K. I entered this race hoping to run under 17 minutes, my personal best on this course being 17:01. I ran that time on hate alone, after being snubbed by Jen Adams and left off the regionals team in fall of 2009. That day I placed third behind former Geneseo Atlantic Region Champ, Ted Turner and another guy.
As has been true far too often in my post-collegiate career, I toed the line underprepared and overconfident. Once the race started I settled into fifth place. A pack of three runners broke away right from the start. I came through the mile in a shockingly difficult 5:45. Not Good! At this point it was very clear I wasn't going to be breaking 17. After some quick arithmetic I realized I'd be lucky to break 18! Despite a large hill in the second mile, I established a proper rhythm. Rounding the corner onto the linear trail I had a glimmer of hope that maybe the first mile was a bit long and I was still on sub 17 pace.
I eventually reached the 2 mile mark in 11:27. I had picked it up, but was well off my goal pace. My tiny glimmer of hope was officially gone. I started reeling in fourth place towards the end of the linear trail (site of runvlog ep4 "Gobble Gobble"). Smelling blood, I threw in a surge towards the top of the hill that led to the finish and passed the pretender in front of me. Much to my delight, he started floundering.
I ran hard to the line to a mediocre 17:37. I can't be upset with that! I had thought my training was similar enough to pre-toga and the 10k, but in reality it's a lot worse. I haven't put together a solid week of training in over a month. I'm not really looking forward to the Manchester Road Race but assuming my achilles feels ok, you better believe I'll be racing it.