Notes
Warmed-up 4 miles including a few strides and 2x 1 minutes at goal race pace. Cool and windy morning - 44F and a steady west wind. First road race of the year so no real idea of goal but targeted 17:20-17:30 and a PR (5:35-5:37 pace).
Decent size field with about 400 runners - enough competition to chase. Settled into 5th place after 400m and 6th after the half-mile. Was holding back appropriately through mile in in 5:30. Perfect, I thought. Top five runners pulled ahead and worked with 7th place runner through two miles, crossing the marker in 5:31 & 11:01. Terrific - felt like I could hold this effort to the end and earn a low-to-mid-17 time and a PR. Guy pulled away from me and I had a big gap on 8th place - essentially I ran alone for the final mile although I could see places 2-6 ahead. Was happy about my effort until I reach mile 3 timer and hear 16:58, 16:59, 17:00. WTF?
Kicked it in to finish 17:39 and two seconds shy of PR. Knew something was up with the course measurement or markings. 7th overall and 1AG (M36-40)
Splits (by my watch): 5:30, 5:31, 5:59, 0:40
We figured during the cool-down that the mile 2 marker was well short. I could go on ranting about the race company that puts on the race, but I receiving false feedback from the M2 marker is a bummer. I thought I was in a good position but come to find I was not. How hard is it to get an accurately marked course? Apparently, it's rocket science.
All-in-all, a good effort but slightly disappointed. A slight blowup, perhaps? No time to dwell - the real prize is the marathon in 8 days.