Got to the start line and I knew something was not right. If that was the start/finish the course was short for sure. Not sure by how much but 100% it was short. But there could have been extra KM along the course - you never know.
Race started and I found myself in 4th after the first km. But the 2 kids in front of me were already dying so I over took them shortly after. Guy in first was already way in front but not increasing the gap. Thought he may have gone out too fast so I kept the gap steady and I would try to close him down later in the race. At 3K the guy behind me surged and went ahead of me. I was so focused on the lead runner and in such a rhythm it took me a while to respond. I picked up the pace in the last km and I started to close him down but ran out of course. He got me by 13 seconds. Never could close the gap to the winner and he beat me by almost a minute.
Crossed the line in 3rd @ 17:43. No chance this was right for a 5k. That's Robbie-T territory and no way I'm that fast. My 800m interval times are not even that fast. And I didn't feel like I ran 5K at interval pace as I could still stand up and was not puking
. The winners garmin showed the course was short by 600m which made sense based on where the start/finish line is usually located for runs along this route. I know garmin's are not 100% accurate either but 600m is pretty bad, even for a non certified course. My extrapolated time would have been 20:17 which I would have been ecstatic with. 30 seconds off a PB but pretty good considering lack of speed work over the last year. So what to do with this fictitious PB?????
and then go find a certified or at least reasonably accurate 5k. There must be a lot to choose from.
Great race report.