Was undertrained, so I set an easy early pace. Worked out well, but probably could have pushed harder in the first few miles, or started my kick earlier. Kept hearing about "the hill" at mile 5 that could break you if you let it. Was reserving energy for "the hill". Turned out it was only a short block long (<100 yards).

Train better beforehand, start further forward in the pack to avoid the slow first mile, push harder in the middle, which was mostly downhill, and don't worry about "the hill"

Stretching, GU20, and a banana


heavy pack at start and not enough training


There was a water station at every mile, except mile 3, where I'd planned to get water (Murphy's law I guess). At the 5 mile mark, at the top of "the hill", the 10k course rejoined the 5k course right where there was a water stop. This created chaos. Some cones separating the 5k from the 10k and moving the water station a few hundred feet forward would help reduce the chaos.