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<span style="font-family:Arial;">It was a beautiful morning as I crawled out of bed. The temperature was right around 45* and slightly cloudy. I ate my ritual morning snack before a run, peanut butter Gatorade energy bar. Then I downed 24 oz of water over the next hour. I left for the race with one real goal in mind, keep it under 20 minutes. I didn’t really want to run hard as my legs were quite sore from the weeks workouts.</span><br><br><span style="font-family:Arial;">Typically on these 5K the local high school and college track teams are there in force and today was no different. The runners left for the 1 Mile race, which include most of the runners from the track team.</span><br><br><span style="font-family:Arial;">I started my warm-up of 2.5 miles including a few “pick me ups” and to the start I went. This is a fast course and mostly downhill with a few hills spread throughout, but overall downhill. As we were waiting for the 1 mile runners to make it to the 5K start lined and made the comment to the high school track team about where were all the speed demons. He informed me that none of the track teams were running the 5K. Oh, there went my pacers.</span><br><br><span style="font-family:Arial;">As the gun went off I started a little too fast with nobody in front of me but the pace car, but I could hear the foot steps behind me. By the ½ mile point the footsteps began to fade away. At the first intersection the pace car slowed and I actually ended up passing the pace car through the intersection. Arg. Mile one splits was 5:42. Ouch was faster than the 6:15-6:25 I was wanting to run, but hey I was out in front.</span><br><br><span style="font-family:Arial;">During the second mile I just kept plugging away as my pace began to fade. I kept thinking, I know someone has to be closing on me now. Mile 2 – 5:54. Much slower than the first mile, but still way faster than the goal pace.</span><br><br><span style="font-family:Arial;">As mile 3 began I was thinking there is no way I am going to hold a pace faster than 6 min for the next mile, since most of mile 3 is flat or uphill. I was really struggling to hold on to that pace. Mile 3 – 6:06.</span><br><br><span style="font-family:Arial;">The bad thing is you can’t see the finish line until you get to 2.95 miles as you crest the top of the hill. Then it is all downhill for the last tenth. So I pushed as hard as I could down that hill. I don’t know what the split was for the last tenth but if I do the math it was about 16 seconds or so.</span><br><br><span style="font-family:Arial;">Total time: - 18:21.9 – Last year’s time on this same course was 17:42, but this time I was going for a PR.</span><br><span style="font-family:Arial;">First overall <img alt="banana.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/banana.gif"> That is the second time that has ever happened to me.</span>
