I ran this 5K two years ago as my second ever race, at 28:35. My times have been coming down, but the last 5K in Feb was very hilly, so wanted to see some improvement off that 27:22 time.

I met up with Chris, who is recovering from some kind of injury, he said "I'm just going to run slow with you, like 8:10 pace." Uh, buddy, that's a sprint.......

Mile One: We never made an effort to get near the front, so the first 1/2 mile was the usual weaving and dodging the walkers, strollers, etc. Looked down at one point and pace was like 10:30. Felt pretty good once we got clear of the crowd, and I stayed to the right. Almost took out a few car mirrors, and probably added a few yards to the run. First mile split was 8:45. Not bad with the slow start.

Mile Two: I picked it up a little bit, this section is a bit hilly, 2 little rollers, but enough to slow you down. About this time the lead runner was spotted going the other way.

Also passed a group of "Boot Camp" peeps. They had come with their dark shirts with the yellow stars, a couple of "drill sargeants" singing a stupid cadence song, all doing about a 10:00 mile. If you're going to be that obnoxious, at least be fast?? Sorry, that's catty.

Near the turnaround, started to feel like this wasn't what I wanted to be doing right then. Had to go over those 2 rollers again, and I didn't want to. Plus, it had gotten really muggy, and I was soaked.

Mile 2 split 8:10, 16:55

Mile 3: Not much of a memory of this, except that I wanted to sit down. I decided to back off a bit since I couldn't keep up that pace, and I knew I'd still PR by a good bit even at an 8:30-40 pace. My friend noticed, he said later I just lost focus and started to wander. I'd say that's accurate. More than a few times I wanted to just stop and sit on the curb. Thinking about anything to take my mind off the hurt, anything but running.

I was amazed as I looked at other people, looking comfortable, and I was giving it all I had. Oh to be there someday.

Didn't take a split for the last mile, but last 1.1 was 9:43, so 8:50 pace. I'd say I upped and died that last 1/3 of the race. Need to figure out how to maintain focus.

Man oh man, that was hard. but a good feeling to PR, for sure, by almost a minute - 27:22 to 26:38 (time is my time, clock time is 27:30)

Nothing much more to do, most of it was left on the course

as always, weight, more running


Now I remember why I don't do a lot of 5Ks. They are hard, and they hurt. Someday I'd like to be sub 25.