Notes
Major breakthrough today! I'm pretty sure the course was slightly short, possibly by as much as 0.05 mile, but even so, I improved dramatically over the past few races. My 4K split was 17:48 and 5K was 22:05, both huge post-college PRs. I got my km splits: 4:16, 4:44, 4:52, 3:54, 4:17, 4:57, 4:40, and 4:24. Now, the inconsistency of the split times got me wondering during the race. I measured the course with Google maps when I got home, and it looked to be about right, but certainly no longer (which it usually is when measuring with GPS or Gmaps). I got 2.46 and 2.43 on two different tries (0.8% and 2% difference--I believe 4K is 2.48). So...I dunno. I'm not sure I can really count these as new PRs. But, even after adding 20-30 seconds to these times, they are still major PRs. I had thought to break 37:30 for 8K after the PR 5-miler on Thanksgiving, but here I almost dipped under 36! Maybe I'm just in denial.
Still, the course was flat and fast, and all my recent races have been on very hilly courses. I spent the race trying to catch Mark, and also trying to stay with a lady who was in front of me, so at no point was I really relaxing into a slower pace; I was pushing the whole way (I did beat her at the end, by the way). I don't think I'll really believe it until it's confirmed in another race, but at the very least I know I've improved considerably.