Notes
First post-injury 5k and got a PR. A slightly odd race:
* They started 12 minutes early. In fact, half of us didn't even realize the race was beginning until we saw a bunch of people start running. Bizarre. Sort of OK, I guess, in that it did use chip timing, but still, it was weird that we were all like, the race started? And for anyone who showed up for a 9:30 start, they didn't really have a lot of people to run with.
* A large race. It took quite a while to work my way out of the pack, though I did a good job by staying to the side.
* I ran negative splits. I was hoping for under 28 minutes which I believe I calculated at an 8:57 pace. For the half mile it felt like the pack was too slow and I sped up and tried to pass people. Assuming the markers were accurate, I think my one-mile split was around 9:12, which was on track with my last 5k but too slow for my target pace. My pace at the turnaround (halfway point) was like 14:02 or something, which was good... I made up time. My split at 2 miles was I think 18:08, which would put me at 8:56 for the second mile. At that point I thought if I could just hold it I would be able to come in where I wanted. On mile 3 I kept passing people. I was breathing really heavily and trying to keep that together but my legs were totally fine. With the finish line still somewhat in the distance but nevertheless in sight, I looked down at my watch and saw 26-something. WTF? I didn't have enough left for a sprint but I held steady and clocked on my chron at 27:30. No f-in way ... a whole minute faster than my last 5k, better even than I'd been gunning for.
Miscellaneous observations:
* I seem to be continuing to pace myself well, even or slightly negative splits. This is a huge step in my development, since my pacing used to be so awful.
* In this race I felt the limit was my aerobic capacity... it felt like my breathing was what stopped me from going any faster, whereas in the 5 miler last weekend, my legs felt like they couldn't do more.
* Again, the Brooks Ghost shoes felt great. I really like racing in them.
* Bottom line, a great run. I just hit the 20 mile mark this week and I think that with steady 20-25 mile weeks over the next couple months, I should be able to see that time come down significantly. I had wanted to get into the 25s by the end of the year, but now I wonder if I might be able to pull off sub 25 by the end of the year. And I do feel like I race well in warm weather. We'll see....