Notes
Beautiful day to race. Had one cup of coffee, half a blueberry bagel on the way to the race. Didn't feel 100% because my right hip was tight, probably from race last weekend. Warmed up with slow half mile or so, then did 3 100 yd strides, and 3 40 yd sprints finishing about 7 or 8 minutes before start. Pushed through the crowd and got close enough to the front that I wouldn't have to do a lot of zigzagging.
Gun went off and I ran about 200 yds before looking at my watch to check my pace. At that point it was just over 6 min, so I backed off and just tried to run comfortably fast, and tried to keep relaxed. First mile split was 6:50, so that was good and I decided not to look at my watch again... just keep the pace I was running. I felt good through mile 2 and resisted the temptation to check my split when the watch vibrated. Just after mile 2 a guy passed me pushing a stroller. I immediately said, "I can't let him do this..." and I fell in behind him, picking up my pace quite a bit. I stayed at that pace for maybe 75 to 100 yards and started to feel fatigue. I knew I was on PR pace and thought I needed to run conservatively so I didn't get almost to the finish on PR pace and have to throw up because that could blow my race. I let him go. I slowed down, but still felt I was keeping a pretty good pace. We took the last left turn to the straightaway to finish. I tried to stay calm and didn't really kick hard, just kept a strong steady pace. Almost to the finish, I look to my right as a little girl about 10 yrs old runs up and kicks to the finish. I just smiled and let her go. It turned out she ran a chip time of 21:43. Good for her!
I expected a bigger PR, but I can't complain... it has been almost 4 years since I've had a 5k PR. I'm hoping this is the start of something good.