Notes
Three-peat at the Moms' Run! For some reason I really beat myself up the past couple years for doing this (more so 2015) and I'm not really sure why. The fact that I could give a lazy effort and still win made me feel shitty. But hey, it's not like everyone there is giving an all-out effort; I just put in enough work where my less-than-max effort is enough to win a low-key race like this. After all, a race has to have a winner, and if it wasn't me today, it would have been someone over 20min.
Anyway...
Certainly wouldn't have minded faster but I'm generally good with it... although 16:59 certainly would have looked nicer. Relatively even pace so that's a plus compared to both other years with more significant positive splits. The course was changed again this year meaning all 3 times I've run this it's been different so maybe I can't make a perfect apples-to-apples comparison, but I'd say this was my best run of the 3 still. However, I haven't expected much any of the three years. Almost positive it wasn't certified but I'd say 10s short at the worst.
Humid morning but the temperature was reasonable at ~72. Warm-up was breezy with some threatening dark clouds nearby but storms weren't predicted until later in the day. Just about 5min before the race it started to sprinkle and picked up throughout the race but never really got worse than a light rain. Wasn't a very cooling rain but I'm sure it was better than none. Course reminded me of the Nexton Cocoa Cup as it was generally a lollipop with a long straight and a small loop - not my favorite but I wasn't hurting enough for it to be too mentally straining. Was immediately clear I'd be on my own so I just tried to stay composed and put together something reasonably respectable. Ended up 3:30 on 2nd... even for the Moms' Run, that's pretty sparse up front... Crazy to think that 4 years ago it was won in 14:29 haha. Fun to get out there and compete again... been a light year for that. Doesn't really do anything for confidence either way; fine for now, pretty much as expected.
HR peak at 200 and avg of >197 for 2+ mi. Still think max might be a few ticks higher but at least backs up that max is no lower than 200.
No soccer ticket prize though! That was a main reason for coming back! Dang.