Notes
Certified Course and rated as the fastest 5k in StL.
Lots happening in this race. Fast field and Brandon points out Tim Rackers, former Tulsa University XC National qualifier will smoke the current crowd. He is right as Rackers wins by 38 seconds.
They announce that there are 2000 runners competing. This must include the 1 mile fun run as the official total finishers in the 5K = 1,319.... still a big race with quality depth. I am trained up and have my ace-in-the-hole card as Brandon will be running beside me for the first 2.8 miles of the race and helping me out on the final mile by pointing out not to be a pussy, essentially.
Typical race as there are a bunch of fast guys/girls up front and then a lady with a 6 year old girl who walks up and stands directly in front of Brandon and I, who are standing on the second row with 6 min to start time. I shake my head, step out and step right back in front of mommy/daughter and pull Brandon up with me while stating loud enough for her to hear "I am NOT standing behind a 6 year old kid at the start of this race". I looked back about a min later and these two had melted back into the masses so she must have gotten the hint. However, there are some seriously fast individuals up front and I tell Brandon we may be in 60th place at the mile mark but I am still shooting for a top 30 finish. He assures me we will be passing some people on the back half of the course.
Crowd goes out very fast and the front runners are GONE.... We are probably around 60th at the half mile mark running at 5:45 pace. Brandon is running beside me and about every 90 seconds telling us what pace we are running. We pick it up a little on the second half of the first mile and end up with a first mile split of 5:39. I tell Brandon "Sorry, I screwed that up" and he says "Dont worry about it; you are good; We will let the field pull us along". We are probably around 50th at this time. I put the first mile out of my mind and concentrate on holding pace. He continues to run beside me and letting me dictate my pace while giving our 1.5 mile split. I am actually pacing off of 3 women with Big River elite running shirts on. One is Erica Holyrod who went sub-18 last year. We are behind them at the 2 mile mark but pulling on them slightly. 2nd mile split of 5:45; Whoa..... just running with the field today.
Mile three is the key mile and will be interesting as already have 2 fast miles in the bank. Finally catch another 2 of the BRR women at the 2.5 mile mark right before the final .30 mile hill. Both fold pretty easily and drop way back during the final 1K of the race. Also pass a couple of young guys as we are moving up the hill and they finish 2 and 3 seconds behind me. I started to fold on the current pace right as we started up the final hill. Brandon was telling me to just finish up the last hill and it took me about 5 seconds to decide I was not going to puss out on this race as probably never get a better field to run against. Started hammering up the hill and finished the 3rd mile with a 5:38 split. Shit fire - I didnt know this as I was keyed in on trying to catch the girl who ended up finishing 2nd OA. She didn't fall off the pace at all and I only made up about 2-4 seconds during the final .3 mile sprint. Finishing kick 5:11 pace but I was completely wasted. Saw 17:30 as I was rolling toward the finish, knew there were people behind me and kept going as fast as I could.
Age-graded out at 83.65% and my fastest race on a certified 5k course since winning the Azalea race in Spring 2013.
Only one 40+ guy beat me; he was 41 y/o and ran a solid 16:54. Got chicked by two smokin' fast women who went 17:13 and 17:33. However, I believe the most impressive women's time of the day goes to 49 y/o Heidi Schmidt with her 18:10 finish. That is very impressive. I believe we passed her right at the two mile mark today.
No one passed us after the initial sprint out the gate for the first half mile. We passed a lot of people during the final 2.5 miles of the race.
Have to give Brandon a huge assist as he helped me tremendously throughout the race. He ran beside me until the 2.8 mile mark and I told him to "GO' as we had discussed that earlier. It was a blast passing people together throughout the race. Sometimes one right behind the other and other times splitting to R/L of the runner as we glided by him.
I think that is the hardest I can run a 5K at this mileage and condition.......... or is it??? hmmm. Taking some time off to recover my body, get some quality training in during July and start picking some fall races to run on off weeks from the xc meets.
Just noticed I had broke across the 11,000 mile documented mark on RA site. While I have many, many more miles that have not been "documented" it is still a nice mark to cross. Will begin working toward 12,000 mark starting Wednesday.
35th documented sub-18 min 5k race. This does not include two additional races which had garmin distance of 3.04 miles that were 16:52 and 17:34 finishes: both which were well inside the sub-18 extrapolation range... So technically 37 sub-18s and officially 35.... Going to see if I can crank out another 5 or so on some certified courses.
Counted up the race finishes completed between 18:01 and 18:20 --- 16 total with four of them 18:02 finish times and 7 finishes between 18:01-18:05. A lot of "near misses".