I ran the 10km version of this race last year and had fun so I was back this year for a 5km race. A new covered bridge meant that the very short road section was eliminated. I checked out the course as a warm-up, it had a lot of variety. The first mile was probably the fastest, with dirt road, grass fields, and basically flat trail. The second mile had the only water on the course, but it could be avoided by dodging to one side of the trail or the other. There was also a lot of rolling little "bumps" in that second mile that made it the slowest of the three. The final mile had one minor bump and some longer straight stretches. There really was a little bit of everything.
After warming-up I changed into racing flats (Inov-8) and did another mile with some strides. The kids 3k was running late so I ended up getting another mile in prior to the start. I felt pretty lousy, the headcold I'd picked up this week left me dragging a bit. At the start a bunch of yutes took it out VERY fast. I went out hard but controlled. By 200m into the race I was in the lead but I could hear footsteeps close behind. I concentrated on running hard through the mile (5:33) and then tried to really push on the downhill from 1.2 - 1.6. Around this time it sounded like I pulled clear but I didn't want to look back. I hit 2m in 11:29 (5:56) and worked on keeping the tempo up as much as I could. I was hoping for a sub-18, and hit three miles in 17:09, but the last part was closer to .2 than it was to .1 and it took me another 1:03 to reach the line (18:12).
Needless to say I was happy to get a win! That is my second win this year and my first one in 6 months. I gave a good effort and I'm going to break 90 miles again this week. I can only hope to keep the training together and get to the trail Marathon National Championships ready to roll.
Next up: Lone Gull 10km road race (09-18-11) - I'll be gunning for my 40+ PR...
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