Notes
Purple Valley Classic, hosted by Williams Colllege and held at Mt. Greylock High School. Ran in the mixed 5k with Paul, Jarrett, Andrew, and Eddy. Plan going in was to do as coach said- try and get out relaxed the first mile ,then move up in the second two thirds of the race.
The start went fine. I got out in a good spot, and settled in behind Paul. The first part of the course was just a simple fields loop around some baseball fields, before it climbed into the woods. Essentially the rest of the course was rolling hills, including one long uphill. There were also a few sharp turns. I had trouble taking turns, and had to really decelerate to take some of them- need bigger spikes. I came through the mile in 5:33, just behind Paul. He then pulled away from me, although I could see him, Jarret, and Andrew in front of me the whole race. I tried to pick people off, but it was tough. I definitely did catch some kids, but I'm not sure how many, and then I got passed by two towards the end. I felt pretty strong coming down into the final straightaway.
This was a slow time, but I was definitely not going to run particularly fast at this course. The first mile probably could have been somewhat more conservative, considering how slow I ended up running. Regardless, I need to learn from this race and move on. No race next weekend, meaning I have two weeks to get in some solid training.