Much better than my last 5km where I went out like a mad man.
During my warm up I ran into North of ... and gave her a big birthday hug! Saw Mme Bourdette, crossing paths a few times as our warm up routines took us back and forth around the start area.
I decided at the last minute that I would try my new Mizuno Wave Universe flats. Risky, I know, wearing new shoes on race day, but it wasn't my A race and I really wanted to try them. It wasn't a mistake, I loved them. They are the awesomest shoes evar!
My recent 10km pb predicted a 21:00 flat for a 5km, so that was my goal, beat that to get a new prediction for the 10km!
I also set my Garmin to take splits ever 500m instead of 1km, I wanted a better idea of how consistent my pacing was. I think next time I'll set it to lap every 200m to get an even finer granularity.
The race starts on a long climb of about 500-600m right off the bat. I got behind some guys that I knew were around my speed, hoping they keep me from going out too fast, and it worked for the most part. Felt great, despite being just under 4:00/km for the first 500m
I found a groove and held a pretty solid pace, hovering very close to, but a bit slower than 4:00/km.
When I hit kilometer 3 in 12:11 I started to get excited. This would be close, if I could just hold on. Kilometer 4 had a long steady downhill, that was just a bit too steep, I ran that section at 3:49/km and made up some time, but after that I was done with still a kilometer to go.
The last bit was just a slugfest to get accross that line as soon as possible. Paced dropped to 4:10 then to 4:23, with a kick at the end of 3:39/km. (Since Garmin measured 70m long I got a split for the last 70m).
FInal time on my watch was 20:33, a PB by over a minute. I am extremely happy with this result. A clear indication that my fitness level is on the upswing.
Splits: (1st 500m, 2nd 500m) avg for whole km
Kilometer 1: (3:55, 4:03) 3:58
Kilometer 2: (4:03, 4:00) 4:02
Kilometer 3: (4:02, 4:02) 4:03
Kilometer 4: (3:49, 4:10) 3:59
Kilometer 5: (4:23, 4:12) 4:17
Last 70m in 14sec (3:39/km)
It wasn't chip timed, but I'll still wait for the official time before updating the PB thread. I started almost right on the start line so my watch will be pretty close and the clock said 20:32 as I crossed, but by the time I stopped my garmin after the line, it was 20:34. So until I hear otherwise my time was 20:33
Yay me!
(Thankfully the race started 10 minutes late!)
