This is a 5K, which means it's all about how much pain you're willing to endure. The plan was to hammer the first mile, which is almost completely flat. I went out at around 6:00 pace for the first 600 or so, then settled into low 7:00s. My legs were spent already so I knew this wasn't going to be my day.

Made the turn to start the uphill second mile and I felt like I was climbing a mountain. My pace slowed into the mid-8:00s and there was nothing I could do about it. I pushed it all I could to get up to the top of the hill and then just relaxed the first 1/8 mile of downhill.

The next half mile went pretty well. I got my pace down into the low 7:00s, which still wasn't anywhere near fast enough to make up for that crappy 2nd mile. At this point I was running with one guy (this apparently would become important later...) with no one within 100 yards of us either way. I passed this guy (a police officer named Tom...as he had a bunch of cheering sections along the route) and stayed about 5 yards ahead of him up the last hill before the 1/2 mile downhill finish. I started extending my stride on the downhill, getting below 7:00 for the first time since about 2 min into the race. I really didn't feel like hammering out the end and kept a controlled, long stride and was in the mid-6:00s with about 200 yards to go. The guy behind me just HAMMERED the last 200...I kicked it out (last 0.13 was like at 5:30 pace) but he still beat me by 4 seconds.

Turns out those 4 seconds cost me an AG podium spot. Dang it!!!

Also got beat by an 11 year old and a 12 year old.

Not get into a self-caused bike spill three days before the race.

Drank some water and went home (2 miles away). Stretched for 10-15 minutes and tried not to puke. Wasn't feeling good at all.

After a few more minutes I ate a bagel and felt better.


Not enough sleep, bike injuries, and not enough HTFU on the second mile.