Notes
Had a lot of nervous energy before this race. Hadn't run a 5k since January, and had trained quite a bit since then without really being able to drop my mile times below what I had run in that race. Was afraid I was going to be disappointed.
The first mile I just had a big surge of adrenaline, and rode it out. I knew I was starting off too fast, but decided I would be better rolling with it rather than fighting it today. It was my fastest paced mile by almost 30 seconds.
Second mile, I intentionally tried to hold back a little bit, particularly the last half of it. I knew I was getting ahead of myself, and didn't want to completely crash.
Third mile I ran comfortably hard. There were points when I thought I was pushing it, but in retrospect, I feel like I had a little more to give here. I'm not sure how much was really left, because I felt dead at the time, but pretty much as soon as I crossed the finish line, I felt like I should have had a negative split between 2 and 3, rather than going up slightly.
All in all, I felt great during and after this race. I'm glad to get my race time down close to 7:00 again, and that gives me something to shoot for near term. As far as takeaways, I think if I run a similar race, but close it out a little harder, I should be able to improve on this time very soon.
Finished 4th overall according to predictions: -2:45 compared to my previous best 5k this year.
Still one of my favorite races of the year!