Notes
FINALLY. What a relief.
11th by gun but because of chip time they gave me the 10th-place award - questionable, but I wasn't going to argue! Well I sure cut it close but I got it done... finally! It's hard for me to believe, but it's been almost exactly 6 years since I first tried to run sub-16, and well over 5 since I set my previous PR of 16:02... jeez. I knew today was going to be one of those rare times where I was in shape to do it and also had a great setup for it, so honestly this result was more of a relief than anything! I know I can do better, but I definitely got a monkey off my back and that feels great.
I think I needed the experience and confidence gained from last year to be able to do this today. This year I was expecting that headwind on King St for that 3rd mile so I made sure to get out hard enough on the first 2 to have "cushion" for it. I wanted 10:06 at 2 and was a little off with 10:10 (by course markers), but I still felt strong and was mentally ready for a good push on 3. It was definitely still a very tough mile, but it helped having a couple guys around me and I wasn't about to let this one slip away. I upped the effort a couple times when I felt I was getting comfortable and it seemed like it was still a strong mile but I wasn't sure how much room I had - I didn't know how far ahead my watch was and I couldn't see the official 3-mile marker. I saw the finish clock in the 40s and watched the seconds tick away, but I was pretty sure I saw 57 as I crossed to my relief... but PLOT TWIST - I looked down and saw 16:00.0 on my watch! I didn't stop my watch immediately after finishing and I wasn't right on the start line, so I was fairly sure I had it at least by chip, but it was a fairly agonizing hour before I finally found official results haha.
Good stuff, another pretty small PR but it sure was a satisfying one. Great race, fun morning, and a nice way to kick off Thanksgiving. And Ronnie PRed too! #powercouple