Notes
Aw yeeeee, redemption! Very happy with the final time as well as how I ran it. I'm definitely glad to erase that old 15k PR... there's still room for improvement here but that other one was just embarrassing (not to mention that I ran a faster 15k in my HM that I can't officially count)!
Again, wouldn't have done this if I hadn't signed up a while ago (really enjoyed it last year) and if I wasn't feeling healthy enough to give it a try. The plan was to race but to feel it out over the first few miles... if my body wasn't ready for it or if I felt like I was going to do damage, I'd back off. If everything was hunky dory, the goal was to run the three 5ks at 5:45-5:40-5:35(or faster) pace and freakin NAILED it (see below!). However, I don't think I ever really got comfortable! I had some serious doubts on the second mile especially... I saw the split and with how crappy I felt, I couldn't help but think "ugh I'm an idiot AGAIN, I don't belong here." But I decided to press on and see if I started feeling better over the next few miles. Honestly, I never really felt better, but I did get faster, so I guess that's all that matters.
PERFECT weather, and less windy than last year. Slightly different course this year due to some construction, and I think I liked it better actually, but I guess I don't remember the other all that much. Similar to last year the 5k and 15k courses ran together for the better part of 3 miles. The top 2 5k guys (and top 3 15k guys) were well in front but I had passed the rest of the 5kers by the time we turned off... after that it was just a time trial time haha. Ended up only 25s back of Eric Ashton but only because he died (or chilled) at the end; for the most part, he, Chris Bailey, and Jay Upchurch were together (as best as I could tell) on low 50 pace. But again, I don't mind being mostly alone on a longer race... it allows you to focus on yourself and find your own groove. Honestly, nothing all that exciting happened at any part of the race. Only things to note are that I slowed down a bit on 6 intentionally because I thought I was getting ahead of myself, and that mile 7 is a little deceptive because I stopped for a few seconds (<5) to sip some water. Definitely was spent by the end... honestly I think I pretty much ran to today's max potential.
Splitting up RA's distance 3 ways and calling them 5ks, I get 17:52 (5:45) - 17:36 (5:40) - 17:11 (5:32)... couldn't have executed much better haha!