Notes
Hell yeah. A solid effort. I'm not sure what kind of shape I'm in. I suppose I'm in 14:59 shape, but I'm not sure how this fares relative to what my full potential would be. I sort of feel like this was a solid race and about as close to my current fitness's ability. I have to assume there's a lot of room for improvement as I continue to get back to my old self again.
I had 2 goals going in:
1) Not to do something dumb. I thought it would be bunched up at the front and a bunch of sandbaggers and that I'd get frustrated like I often do and make a big move 800m in and then lead for the next 3-4k and then blow up.
2) To not worry about finishing but for holding pace for as long as possible. I really wanted to fight through that tough part of every race, about 80% in when the , 3.5-4.5
The race itself was exhilarating. I was in position 1 and was worried I'd get boxed in, but as it turns out NEDP had a pacer and so there guys sat back and let him go to the front, and I was able to comfortable settle in around 8th. He clicked off 36s for the first km and we went through in 2:58 or so. I wasn't checking splits, but I think we were about 4:48 at the mile. I started to get jumpy and wanted to make a move at about the half way point, but told myself to wait it out and at the 2 mile I could go. I think we were about 9:40 at the 2 mile and someone made a move and the group started to string out. I was in 4th or 5th at that point and we were passing so many people it would've been to much of a move to catch up so I staid roughly at pace. The pacer dropped out after 4k and me and the now 2nd place guy started to push the pace. I was pretty stoked that I was able to hang on at this point (goal #2, check). He started is kick at 400m and put a good gap on me. I started to close the gap with 100m to go and finshed about a second back. So yeah, a solid effort and only my 4th time dipping under 15. I think if I'd run a more even pacing (there was quite a bit of jostling) I could've been a few seconds faster.