Notes
Garmin died during warmup, no records. Official time 19:53, first sub-20 PR! Last PR was 20:12 from same race a year ago.
Windy, but temp was nice. First 1/2 mile just trying to outrun the crowd, then trying to maintain pace. It had been a long while since I had to race by feel. Tried to keep my focus and rhythm by counting my steps from 1-10 repeatedly. From the mile race a few days ago and today's 5k I think I realized what "running outside the comfort zone" meant, and it is not just running at an uncomfortable pace. Breathing was hard throughout. Up to 1.5 mile I was trading places with a teen, I was afraid of just following him because I had no idea what pace we were running, so I just tried to keep my own pace, and not worried about taking over him or being taken over. After he dropped off I set my sights on 2 old farts about 10m ahead, trying hard not to let them get too far away. About 2.5 miles I closed the gap to about 2m but they kicked it in at the end and opened the gap back up. Not having a watch ended up helping me because I kept feeling that I had to push to not fall behind, whereas if I had a watch I probably would have eased up and pushed just enough to secure an even pace for PR. Somewhere around the midpoint between the mile 3 marker and the finish line, the 1OA guy was walking back and yelled "20 seconds!". That lit the fuel and I just had to go for it, sub-20 was going to be close! Crossed the finish with nothing left and pretend-puked a couple times. I didn't know my time at the finish line and didn't want to bother coach who was doing the timing, so I had to wait till the afternoon for the results to be posted online.