Notes
Really Really happy with the 5k today, and excited for where the spring is headed.
That was definitely a huge road PR, and I believe only 3 seconds off my 5k track PR from outdoor conference my junior year. Thrilled to be affirmed in my thoughts that I am fit right now.
My plan was to go out with the leaders, try not to pay too close attention to my watch, and hopefully just race well in the field. The first mile was too fast ~5:35, and I felt that in the last mile, however it was not terribly absurd, and I think given my goals and how the race played out it was a fine strategy. I was sitting in 3rd at the 1 mile mark, and the next female was quite a ways back, so I'm glad I was out with the two female leaders, even if they took me out slightly faster than I ideally would have gone out. The girl who ended up winning probably went through ~5 seconds ahead of me, and she ended up running 17:4?, so i' glad I didn't try to hang with her any longer. I settled in a bit for the 2nd mile, but still moved pretty well thought the field of men. The second mile was 5:44, and that felt about appropriate. I stayed 10-15m behind the 2nd place female and felt strong. Just after crossing the 2 mile mark I started to move up on 2nd place, amid a group of dudes, and even came even with her for a while, but then I started to feel the legs pretty significantly and knew I had to back off a bit. I felt the fast first mile between about 2.3 and 2.9, and while I didn't completely fall apart, I certainly wasn't moving forward at all. The 2nd place chick increased her lead to about 10-15m again, and it stayed that way for the remainder of the race. Luckily, the three of us had opened up a decent gap right away, and I had a decent cushion before the next female behind me. I closed fairly well over the last 2-3 tenths, and much better than I thought I was going to. Overall I think had my first mile been 7-10 seconds slower, I would have been able to run a much more successful third mile. However, things didn't get too ugly, so I'm not torn up about it. My goal was to go out and race well and potentially hang with the leaders, and I feel as though I executed that plan well. Perhaps my overall time would have been faster had I been able to closer better over the last mile, but of course the quick first mile helped the overall time significantly. Ah, racing. How fun, how puzzling.