<p>Morning all,</p>
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<p>OK, OK here's the 5k mini-report. This was just a little club race, first one in the summer race series where points are assessed based on AG finish - there are 8 races or so, and your 5 best count towards your score. Anyway, I signed up a couple of days ago online and figured well, let's see what I can do only 9 days after running North Face. My running since NF has been very light as I focused on recovery, so I really had no idea what I would do last night. Got there about 15 minutes beforehand, enough time for a quick bathroom stop, short warmup and some stretching. Then we lined up and were off. I didn't want to get out too fast for this one, figured around maybe 6:10 or 6:15 for the first mile; ended up running 6:06 and it felt a little fast. As we progressed towards the turnaround I wondered if maybe I should have skipped this one and recovered a little more. Mile 2 went down in 6:27, which was actually a little better than I had been feeling, so I thought OK, I might not do so badly after all. Picked it up at the 2 mile point and started putting some distance between me and the guy behind me but not really closing on the 2 guys ahead. Still I knew I was going faster and feeling better. So I just tried to maintain that to the finish. Crossed the line in 19:31, so that means I went 6:58 for the final 1.1, i.e., a 6:20 mile pace. Funny how often I seem to hit bottom in Mile 2 of a 5k, then bounce back.</p>
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<p>Final results aren't posted yet so I'm not sure what my overall place was but I did win my AG, which was cool. Got a Starbucks card as my prize. Enjoying a free iced coffee as I type. <span><img alt="cool.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/cool.gif"></span> And yes, I'm now in the pole position in the summer series, taking 20 points for first place in the 40-49s. It's a competitive AG though, so I'm not assuming I'll be able to do that every race.</p>
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<p>Today - I'm thinking it's time to hit some trails after work. Manassas Battlefield or Burke Lake. I know, not original. What can I say, they're my familiar stomping grounds. 5 miles or so ought to do it. Gorgeous weather outside, yet again. And it will stay cool for a couple more days, but it looks like heavy rains move in tomorrow.</p>
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<p>BBS - good luck trying to get those 800s in</p>
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<p>Dave - nice tempo run. You are definitely rounding into form it seems</p>
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<p>4bm - nice job with the splish-splash</p>
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<p>zrun - nice TM run, sometimes you do what you gotta do</p>
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<p>jebba - way to go on the early 15! <span><img alt="hello2.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/hello2.gif"></span></p>
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<p><span>kevin - two days in a row at the "new standard" run distance (6). Good job.</span></p>
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Running even splits in a 5k is tough. Mile 2 has often been my slowest mile in 5ks. The reason is that you have to increase your effort more than you think to maintain pace and/or you think you ran the 1st mile too fast but back off more than you think. Come the mile 2 marker you realize that you slowed and hence speed up. </p>
