Notes
Ran a decent race overall. Got a PR by about 8 seconds but missed by sub-25 time by 9 seconds. I thought I had it at the end but it took me too long to get to the finish line.
First mile was a little slow, 8:11. I had a hard time judging my pace. I felt a little winded but okay.
Knowing that I was behind pace, I sped up during the second mile. My pace at the turnaround was around 12:11, which was fast (probably too fast). At the two mile marker I was around 15:54 for a second-mile split of about 7:43.
I think that second mile was a little too fast because my third mile plus was a little slow. I felt like I hung on for most of it, but I guess I slowed down. My time for the remaining 1.1 miles was an 8:24 per mile pace, which was obviously too slow.
Near the finish line I was at 23:30 and I thought I had sub 24, but somehow it took me more than a minute to finish. I guess it was a little further away than I thought, and I didn't have any sprint left. Nevertheless, I had a good time and a PR. But it was still frustrating to be so close to my goal and to miss, especially because I'm not sure how many more spring 5ks there are that I might want to do.
Oh well, can't complain too much. And I haven't been running that hard so truthfully it's a good time off of low mileage.
My cough was a minor factor, but not significant.