Notes
38th COR 5k. Ran it 3 years ago for a win in 18:02. Hoping a mid-18 will be good enough this year. CBEGM team scouts things out pre-race. SEMO running club has about 15 runners entered. I am sure there are a couple of guys wanting to run in that group.
JW tells the group to follow KH and CW; we take off and the youngsters don't seem eager to pass me even as I go out conservatively for first 2/10 of a mile so I keep it just above 6 flat pace to see what will shake out at the first half mile. Have three youngsters around me and will have to wait until the first incline past the bridge to probably lose those without great interest. End up running with an 18 year old from CBC who introduces himself and we chat for a few minutes. He runs beside me for about a quarter mile then tucks in just behind my left shoulder. I make sure to make him take the outside tangents whenever possible just because I could. Plan forming for options to maintain the lead as we head toward the turn-around. Going to go with the safer bet as a 53 y/o racing and 18 y/o with fresh legs and probably a decent kick.
at the 2.25 mile mark I hit two consecutive "surges" of 60-70 meters or so to put 2-3 seconds on Jr. Judging to see how fast he comes back toward me. He does both times. We make the sharp left then sharp right and head under Kingshighway. Plan is to attempt to create 5-6 second gap starting with the incline up from the creek through the next .2 mile or so and hang on. Works well and have 5-7 seconds on him during last left turn and heading into the finish line area. Punch it down one additional time to make sure he doesn't get any ideas of sneaking up behind.
Splits today: 6:02/6:12/6:02/:16 seconds for final .07 miles (sub 5:00 pace). 18:32 finish time and bookend OA Metal trophies from this race.
Bramlett runs sub 20 min at nearly 57 years of age and sends an age-group competitor home with a scowl and runner-up finish.... He has to bring a better game than that to take that salty CBEGM runner down.
Carol Winter wins OA female title with an 83% age-group time. GrandMasters crush the competition today.