The race wound through downtown Birmingham. Pretty sedate course - between miles 2 and 3.3 or so there is a good hill that climbs 150 feet. It plateaus through to mile 4, then back down to the finish. I was aiming for 50 minutes, with anything under 48 being a superior effort. The plan was to cruise through 5k and bust it on the way home.

Mile 1: 7:07 Good start, maybe a tad fast. But I was staying underneath any aerobic issues and felt good.
Mile 2: 7:52 Road starts to turn up here a bit, but mostly I was trying to make sure I didn't burn out. I thought I was faster here.
Mile 3: 8:24 All uphill. Felt good going up, but the plan was definitely not to burn out here. Still thought I'd be a bit faster here.
Mile 4: 7:51 This was an undulating part of the course before the downhill. I restrained myself from hitting the gas here until the hills were done.
Mile 5: 6:58 Hammer time. Good downhill part. Just lengthened my stride and starting chewing people up. Thought I was in the 6:40 range here.
Mile 6: 6:57 Course levels out here. I was hurting pretty bad. Surprised I kept this pace. I was flying past people.
Mile 6.2: 1:13 (5:13 pace). Left it all out there. In the last couple miles I got passed maybe three times and I caught 2 of those and repassed them. Major, major pain cave here, but I gave it every bit of what I had.

Total: 46:22 (estimated) We'll see what the official time is, but it will be close to that. Did the first 5k in 24:14 and the second in 22:08. Talk about a negative split. This course is custom made for those, though, with the elevation changes.

Best part of the day was trying to catch one guy who I spotted in front of me at mile .5 or so. Yellow shirt guy was running really well and I lost him on the backside of the course only to pick him up again at about mile 4. I ran him down with 1/4 mile to go. Booyah.

It has been a long time since I have been so pumped up after a sporting event. In six months I have gone from basically puking after a 2.5 mile run (at 9:15 pace) to being able to bring it home like I did today. I was flying over those last 2 miles.