Notes
After many disappointments, I finally broke through with a sub 18 5K. Not only that, I ran a 15 second PR. This was huge for me as I had a big mental block about getting under 18 minutes and I flew past that number. This was a big day for me and I hope that I can get faster and look at the sub 17:30 in the future (along with a sub 36:30 10K).
I did what I wanted to on the first mile. I didn't get out too fast and although Brian said he would kick me in the nuts if I got out faster than 5:40, I felt good after mile one. I had one strategic decision to make as this mile ended against the wind and I had to decide if I stayed on the inside behind people or ran the tangent. I chose the latter.
The second mile felt pretty good too. I thought I may be a second or two slower than the first but I was surprised to find out that it was only 0.34 seconds behind the first. I spend part of this mile hanging on to a guy.
The third mile was a little tough and I really started to feel it. I knew after mile 2 that if I hung on, I would go under sub 18 and the question was just "by how much." I stopped looking at my time at this point because I wanted to race it in. I got about a third of the way in and it hurt so I checked and realized I was at about 5:55 pace and was not happy. I made some surges to get back up and started going back and forth with a few people knowing I wanted to finish strong. Once I saw I had picked up the pace, I stopped worrying about time again and I just raced.
Over the last 0.1 mi, I gained a significant amount of ground on two people but just couldn't quite catch them. This was a nice finish for me.
Overall, I am pleased with my finish and I am glad I finally went under 18 minutes. 17:48 is a great time and I will enjoy it now but I want to start working towards something faster now. I still have a way to go in improving my racing but I took another positive step here. It was a good day.