Energy Capital Run - 15:55 1st Overall- Over 9 Miles Total

Memo to self - Alter pre-race ritual of 2 bananas before race. Need to go with something a little more conservative if you know what I mean :)

I wanted to do this race because it's a relatively flat out and back course that usually has nice cool temperatures around this time of year. This would give me the opportunity to get a fast time in. It's a pretty small race and I didn't expect any more than 1 to 2 other challengers. I was the "official winner" last year even though technically Jose Lara ran about 17 seconds faster. It was also a break through race since I had PR'ed by about 30 seconds. So I was feeling pretty good about the possibilities.

I arrived at the race and did my pre-race warm up and then scoped out the competition. There didn't seem to be anybody to challenge me except for a tall slim guy (found out his name was Dave) who I recognized from Memorial park. I really didn't know anything about his running abilities but he looked legit so I was fully prepared for him to provide a challenge.

The announcer announces the "Go" signal to start the race. And we are off. A high school kid shoots out to the front unwittingly acting as a pacer for 3 quarters of a mile. Another 30 something year old guy is also at a full sprint right beside, and then right behind me. The tall fit looking guy is nowhere in my sights. It's him who I'm watching for. After 3 quarters of a mile, it's pretty much all everyone's got and I start to build a lead with a 5:05 first mile. The first mile was more difficult than expected so I knew I wasn't on my A game.

The second mile was the hardest part of the race because I had a slight mental lapse. As we were heading down the course there was a part of the course that I hadn't remembered from the previous year. At first I suspected that the course would end up being short. But then as we passed a certain intersection I was uncertain if there would be anything that would indicate when to turn back. So I was nervous I was going to over shoot the turn around. These negative thoughts caused me to slow slightly and have to work harder than necessary. I finally hit the turn around and now everything was back on track but I had mentally and physically expended too much energy. On the turn around I noticed that I had a huge lead and this was my race to win. So this would end up being a time trial and a race against the clock. A race to break 16. I ended up hitting mile 2 at 5:09.

The third mile was all about hanging on. I was running at about 5:12-5:13 pace which could have easily become slower. But on the second half of the mile I bogged down and picked up the pace to finish at 5:10 pace.

With .1 to go the legs were obviously very fatigued and I was also working pretty hard cardio-wise as well. I put it on auto pilot for the last .1 to close in 30 seconds at 4:59 pace.

I was surprised to see a 15:55 on my Garmin. I wouldn't have been surprised to have something over 16 minutes considering how slow I ran for much of the race. I'll take the time for now considering how I shut it down for a while as far as speed is concerned. This also builds upon the 16:03 that I ran at the Komen race a few weeks ago. So it seems like I'm coming around a little bit. Throw in some speed work and I should be fine. I also didn't have a huge 10 second crater in this race. Once my splits become more even or negative then I'll know I'm back where I need to be.

3 Mile Warm Up

Jump Rope (160 each leg, 8 reps of 20)

5k Race 15:55

Mile 1	5:05
Mile 2	5:09
Mile 3	5:10
Last .1	4:59
Total Average Pace:	5:08

3 Mile Cool Down