Ran the Sunset run for Shade this evening. I found myself anxious all day for this event. It ended up being warmer than I thought at the start - probably mid-90's, although it felt cooler because of the humidity (or lack thereof) of the air. Started off too fast (nerves), although not incredibly so, I found myself at a sub-6:00 pace for the first 1/2 mile or so, realized that was too fast, and then slowed down a bit. Mile splits were as follows (according to the Garmin, I mean HAL):
Mile 1: 6:19 - I started off in about 9th place (smaller event, inaugural race)
Mile 2: 6:25 - we had a pretty good-sized hill here from a freeway overpass that slowed me down, but I was able to make it up on the way back down. I also passed one of the guys in front of me as I ran down the hill.
Mile 3: 6:22 - I was struggling here with my breathing, but was focusing on the guy in front of me. As we approached one of the turnarounds, I found myself getting closer to him, and just before we hit one of the right-hand turns, I was able to pass him up. This put me in 7th place overall, and with the way I felt, I was just hoping to maintain that place.
As I turned right onto the final stretch, I sped up, and was pretty much giving it all I had as I came in. I was partly motivated because I could swear I heard footsteps behind me, and I didn't want anyone passing me up. However, my fears (and imaginary footsteps) were unfounded. Don't have the final .1 mile split because I forgot to stop HAL, and I had not set it to its race setting.
Final place was 7th overall, 3rd in my age division. I am ecstatic that I broke 20:00 in my first 5K after starting training again. I also think that I am going to try to run the Judgesrun 5K in Salt Lake on June 16 while we are up there, rather than try to get everyone out of bed super early and leave Snowbird early in the morning for the Provo Riverwoods River Trail 10 miler. | 