A few weeks ago I raced my second race of the year-- the Twilight 5K. It's a running event that is encircled by a big cycling event, the Twilight Criterium. There was also a $1000 mile later that afternoon, for the top 5 male and female finishers.
I felt like I was in decent short-distance shape, having had two decent months of training but not much speedwork. Since I don't race much, I never know what to expect.
The weather was nice-- not too hot and sticky, and not rainy/crappy like it was in 2015. So I toed up and took off. The first half of the course was relatively flat... the second half was not. I went out at 3:30 for my first half split. I was pleased, but I knew I couldn't hold that pace the whole time, especially with hills coming.
My splits stayed near 3:35, give or take a second, as this turned into a red-line event. I gave it what I had that day-- I left it all out there. There were two hills on the back stretch that gave lots of us trouble, myself included. After the second one, I found that I couldn't reach down for a deep breath. I didn't have any lung capacity to make it work. I guess that's what happens when you go full out.
I sprinted the last 10 or so yards and got it up to a 5:20/mile pace right at the very end as someone tried and failed to pass me right at the finish. I set a PR by about 25 seconds, so I was very happy with this. I wear a race belt and try to keep my number on my hip, so the pad didn't pick up my chip at the end. As a result I didn't make the official race results list, but Mr. Garmin said I ran it, so I'm counting it.
Now the training has become more sporadic, with no goal race and lacking the structure that the school year provides. Now that I got into better shape, the plan is to stay that way and even take it forward from there.
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