Notes
10:00 the women start, 5.5min later the men. It was about 50 out, overcast with rain on it's way, and little wind: basically perfect conditions. And once I put my flats on, my legs started feeling much more interested in going fast.
I was a little further back lining up, but able to get up to speed fairly fast. That said, I was never even close to the front pack. I settled into a good pace and started passing people with Scott Johnson, once we caught up to Chris Nearly and another dude, we formed a small pack for the time being.
Our pack became a straight line as we forged past the masses though. As I mentioned the men start after the women, so there are many people to pass. Which isn't a big deal on the large 3 lane road, but the course foolishly or purposefully does a short out-and-back on a side road (1 lane either way). We did our best to skirt by them (and the race volunteers tried some things as well), though I'm sure I pissed off a few women. I wouldn't discount any adrenaline boost though, as my first mile was 5:11 (way behind the leaders still). This came as a bit of a shock but I felt good (likely 30sec faster than last year's first mile).
I ended up in the lead of our pack as we left the out-and-back. Here I self-evaluated and decided to calm down as I wasn't even yet at 2 miles. Chris and Scott forged ahead and we all passed 1 more guy who went out too fast. 2nd mile was about 5:20 and then I started to be more in the 5:30 pace. We came into Grey's Lake and got some cheers from Hazard. As I passed women continually, I slowly gained on Chris, and after a brief draft, passed him. 5k was about 16:45.
Motivation remained high as I passed a few more women and saw Hazard 1 more time, but as we left Grey's Lake I was suddenly on my own. No spectators, and only Scott within eyesight (I had been gaining on him but he was still ~15sec ahead), not to mention a few long straightaways. So my motivation to pass became fear of being passed; I focused on not looking back and keeping the pressure on myself. I never gained on Scott, and possibly lost ground until the last quarter mile when I kicked in. But I did leave Chris further behind.
Came in with a goal of 34min (ran well over 35 last year), and very happy to clear that. I was a bit surprised with the nearly even splits considering my fast first mile. Next race in 2 weeks on the track.