Height 5k - 15:40 PR 2nd Overall

First of all I'd like to huge props to my coach, Sean Wade, for turning in a huge performance today. He, with pacing provided by Luis, ran a 14:49 road 5k! This age grades to about a 93% performance (Maybe #1 Master in the country). If he remains healthy, he is going to have a huge year.

I woke up today at the appropriate time but for some reason I was dragging. Before you know it I was rushing to get to the race. I arrived a little late and I got less than a mile warm up in. Sean asked me why I was late. I couldn't really give him a good answer. He told me to go out slower, at 5:05 pace. I told him I was going to go out at 5 minute pace and just see what happens. There were quite a few fast guys and gals. My training partners, Sean, Luis, and new partner Sam were there, along with others like Vaughn Gibbs.

After the usual pre-race ceremonial routines were finished the gun sounded and we were off. Luis and Sean took off ahead of everyone else. I knew what the game plan was for them today. Luis would bring it out to 2 miles for Sean at about 9:30. This would place him in good position to go sub 15. Depending on how Luis felt he would drop out or continue on. Knowing this, I figured the real race would be for 2nd place. My main rival was Vaughn, but there was another guy I didn't recognize who started out pretty strong. I believe his name was Paul Riley. Luis and Sean had started building a nice lead and Paul was in third place with me about 3 seconds off of him and Vaughn about a second off of me at a half mile. I finally caught Paul at 3 quarters of mile and Vaughn was right behind me. I finished mile 1 at 5:01.

Mile 2 was pretty uneventful. I was moving along, maintaining pace with Vaughn still behind me. Somehow I had the feeling Vaughn was pacing off of me because he was right behind me the whole time. This was a little different than usual because usually I'm chasing guys down. Nonetheless I maintained my pace for the most part. Sean and Luis were way ahead and later I found out they had a 2 mile split of 9:28. I finished mile 2 at 5:02 pace with Vaughn still right on my tail.

At mile 3 I was slowing pretty significantly. I was running in the 5:07 range and was struggling trying to run any faster. Shortly after the completion of mile 2 Luis had dropped out. He accomplished his goal of getting Sean in good position to hit his target. Meanwhile I was in the unfamiliar position of doing a race with positive splits. I just held on for the remainder of this mile. I looked back and I could see that Vaughn was about 10 seconds behind me. I finished mile 3 at 5:06 pace. Which amounts to hang on pace for me. I picked up the pace a little bit when I saw the clock ticking at 15:30 and finished the last .1 in 31 seconds for a total time of 15:40. Basically a 3 second PR. Sean and I expected for me to hit the 15:3x mark but it wasn't a total lost cause. Vaughn finished right behind me at 15:50.

5k Splits

Mile 1	5:01
Mile 2	5:02
Mile 3	5:06
Last .1	4:42 (31 secs)
Total Average Pace	5:03

I feel I could have run at least a 15:35 if I had warmed up properly and ran the race the way I normally run it. But I'm happy I at least PR'ed once again. So it's back to the drawing board again as I don't know when my next race will be.

Maybe I need to get used to finishing in 2nd place as its happened 4 races in a row now.