Notes
Another year that it started on time, this year I was ready. Ready for the start that is, clearly not ready for the race as the lead pack formed and I didn't go with it (they weren't even going that fast). Even worse, I started getting trapped and had to practically push my way out a minute in.
Impatience can be important, but once again it just left me alone. I never saw the 1/4 split which worried me at least the next marker was the 1/2. I thought it would be decent as I saw 2:10, but as usual, it takes a bit longer than you'd think to get there. So my half was about 2:21. I still had ambition for a negative split, but I guess my legs didn't agree. My 3rd quarter was my slowest it seems. At the turn, I glanced and saw a group a few seconds behind me. That at least got me to pick it up and kick for the final quarter without getting passed.
Not what I was hoping for, better than last year, but last year was a pretty sad year and my shoes came untied. Worst GBM otherwise. I knew my other races proved that I was in good shape and part of that was doing a lot of strides and workouts where a fast cadence was feeling good. Foolishly, I thought that meant I was ready to be close to a mile PR, not 10sec off. But based on how my fitness showed and how tired my legs would be later this night, it seems I've made the mistake of 90% of my mile races, I simply wasn't trained for it: I did 1 workout and had no prior races even close to mile pace (thanks for nothing new Luther track coaches for canceling 4x16).
I think this is proven by what Drew jokingly said would happen and ended up being true: I lost to Drew by more in the mile than in our 5k 10 days ago (20sec vs 16sec). Drew's domain is the mile, but it's also his 4th this spring while this is my first and I thought I could step down with ease. Hopefully, I'll remember this next year and either prepare better or know to go in to limit expectations.