I started close to the front this time so I would not be caught behind people. The gun went off and I was doing a good pace. There was a short distance before the first turnaround. When we made the turn I noticed I had a group of about 5-10 people right on my heels. I thought they were gaining and were going to pass me, but they never did. I just kept pushing. Did keep hearing someone right behind me and looked over my shoulder because they seems very close, but didn't see anything. Then I realized it was my race bib that I had attached to my belt clip that had twisted to my back. I turned it back to my front a couple times during the race, but it kept twisting around to my back.

We got on the walking path and I saw it going downhill. It didn't seem all that steep. Then we turned a corner and I saw the big part of the hill. going down was not bad but I kept thinking "I'll have to run up this later"!

At the 1 mile marker I was at 6:04! I have never gone out that fast. Looking back, the downhill must have helped, but I was still feeling pretty good. Thought the 20:00 barrier was possible. Kept pushing myself to keep up the pace. It was a struggle, but felt I could keep it up. Just before the turnaround there was a bit of an uphill and I just powered up it. At the turnaround we were at 1.65 miles and only 10:00. I thought the 20:00 was very possible so I pushed harder.

On the way back I was in a zone. My wife said she called to me, but I never heard her. Pete called to me and I heard him, but I didn't see him. Saw Kevin & Tamara from Emery's running the other direction so I gave a little waive, but couldn't say anything.

Glanced at my watch at the 2 mile point which was right before the big hill and I was going a 5:54 pace. Amazing. I know the hill slowed me down but I didn't want to look at the watch to see how much. I just kept powering up the hill as much as I could.

At the top of the walking path the flat road lookd good. There was a short jog to the right before a u-turn to go back to the parking lot and the finish line. At the turn around I was going to turn on more juice and push with everything I had left. I tried but there was not much left to push. I just kept going.

I got in the parking lot and saw the clock was still in the high 18's. I didn't know how far it was around the parking lot so even though I was giving all I had, I dug down and got a little more. Gave more than I thought I had through to the finish.

Previous best time was 20:01. Was working to break 20:00 for some time. Official time of 19:36 beat my previous best by 25 seconds! In a 5k, really? That is a lot to shave off a 5k.

Nothing. Great race. Could not be happier.

Walked back along the course until I saw my wife and ran with her until just before the finish line. Then we walked back to get a jacket she dropped along the course. Stretched when we got back inside.

Had to wait a long time for the results as they were having some trouble.

Finally saw the results and figured I had held on the 2nd in the AG for the overall series standings. Stuck around for the awards.


Faster? You want me to go faster? Well, OK, but I'll enjoy this one first.