Notes
11th Annual Bill Dunn Jr Memorial 5 Miler in Hough's Neck, Quincy. After finishing 3rd and 2nd as a local the past two years, I came in as the outside mercenary this year and finally got my title! Not by any improvement from me though... a ringer just didn't show up. Conditions were very humid, and although my goal going in was definitely to run a course PR and hopefully scare sub-27, I felt like garbage warming up and hadn't gotten all that much sleep, so thought that running super fast was out of the question. Plan was to run even 5:30s for 3 miles, 4th mile a little slower and then hopefully rally on the 5th. As soon as the race started, I went right to the front and by 1 mile or so it was pretty clear that even though I was going out slower than the year before, I had a pretty decent lead on 2nd and if I didn't fall apart I would be able to get the W. Splits were pretty similar to last year, to a point... started a bit slower, miles 2 and 3 slightly faster (was consciously getting on myself to surge and stay focused those miles, although I was still slower than would have ideally wanted). I was starting to tire even on the 2nd mile, and was NOT looking forwards to the hills at the end of the course... luckily, I knew that I had a big enough lead that it was very unlikely anyone would catch me. Suffered through Great Quincy Hill (only a second or two slower than last year on mile 4), and tried to roll down the hill and get moving the final mile. I was mostly asleep at the wheel though, wasn't able get myself going faster (as much mental problem as physical here, i think.
Can't complain about the first place prize - $250 cash money! Pretty unexpected for such a small and uncompetitive race. Certainly not excited with the time or performance, but not bummed about it either. 14 seconds slower than last year, but a good chunk of that has to be the conditions. This was also my 3rd quality day of the week. I think I am at LEAST in similar shape to where I was at this time last year.