Notes
Cherry Fest 15k - 50:20 4th place.
Not a great race but certainly not a bad one at all. Low 60's, overcast, and humid morning so not ideal but probably couldn't ask for much better for a July race. Felt like complete shit on the warm up and start line but as soon as the gun went off I felt pretty normal and the nerves went away. A group of 3 composed of Andrew, Alex Russeau (a 14:10 5k guy) and a higher schooler from Colorado zipped out into the lead and I was just content following them closely. We took it out sorta quick which was fine, I knew we'd settle in eventually. After a mile the top three slowed a bit and I caught them but as soon as I did, they started to pull away again. I didn't wanna run too recklessly before the big hill so I was content running low 5:20's until then. The first 4 miles felt super smooth and I was enjoying myself. The hill on McKinley Road was really tough. I figured Alex was just waiting until the hill to make his moves on Andrew, the high schooler, and myself and sure enough, he did. He ripped up the hill gapping us all pretty good. I just took the hill as it came and didn't try to burry myself too much. Andrew sorta started to come back to me on this hill which surprised me since he's a way better hill runner than myself. Once summiting the hill I tried to be a graceful as possible on the steep downhill that follows. I felt like I was working pretty hard at this point but knew I could sustain the effort. Just tried to cruise on Peninsula Drive and take the tangents well as avoiding the half runners. Once onto 31 was where things got super frustrating. They didn't close the damn road so runners had to take the sidewalks which wouldn't have been too bad except the races all started at different times which made them all finish at the same time in the same place, so I was having to run on grass or the road at times as well as the sidewalk to avoid the stragglers from the half that were blocking the sidewalk, it was so irritating in terms of how that was organized. It certainly slowed us down that last mile since we couldn't keep a rhythm The last long straightaway down Front Street was fun and I cruised into 4th. Unfortunately the two lead bikers lead the top 6 or 7 runners to turn a block early during mile 2 we later learned which gave us 9.16-9.2ish miles instead of the full 15k. So this was probably a 51:10 effort if being conservative. Luckily, that didn't screw up placing at least where I was. Andrew ended up in second about 40 seconds ahead of me. Despite some of the mishaps in terms of organization I enjoyed this distance a lot and could see myself getting pretty good at it. Maybe I'll try to find a fall 15k that is flat and ideal weather to give an official sub 50 a real shot. I've probably been close in a half before. Next up, GLR.