Notes
Legs were really tired from the mileage I put on them from the last couple days, so going into this, I was going to listen to how I felt, and let my first mile kind of decide if I just ran it as a tempo day or an actual race.
First mile felt awesome. Felt like I was moving at a good clip, and not working all that hard. When I saw my pace was under 7:00, I figured I'd push a little and see how it went. Second mile I felt like I was stabilizing my pace, and holding pretty steady, and that was true all the way through the third mile mark.
After the third mile, it was like my legs said, "Alright, enough is enough." and they pretty much went dead on me. The race went out of me like a light shutting off. Could feel myself slowing, so I stopped to walk for about 10 seconds, then continued, and then had to stop and walk another 10-15 seconds near the 4 mile mark. After that, I just plugged away until finishing, but had nothing left in the tank by the end.
Was pretty disheartened that my conditioning didn't hold up better, but I think it was just too much following up a couple longish days with the race. Was nice to see a pace below 7:00, which hasn't happened for quite some time, so I'm definitely feeling good overall. Also finished 4th in my age group and won a gym bag, so that was good too.
Hopefully, next race I'll have some fresher legs to work with.