If I remember correctly, this is my fastest 5k ever. Even in my high school career, I don't recall running better than this.
From the get-go, I jumped out with the quicker runners, as did many people. The majority dropped off in the first 1/2 mile, though. Right away, the leaders put a sizeable gap on the rest of the field. i could tell they were the area's top high school athletes, capable of running 16-17min times. I let them go, and just clung to the front 10 runners or so. For about 2/3 of the race, I was by myself it seemed. No athletes within about a 50m cushion on both sides until the final 1/2 mile or so. At that point, a young kid passed me (probably 14 or 15), and winning female as well. Could I have dug deeper and held them off? Perhaps. But thoughts kept going through my head about how miserable I felt after my race the previous weekend. I used some discretion and just stuck to my pace. They only ended up beating me by 5 or 10 seconds. That's no problem, since I could tell they weren't in my age group.

Probably nothing. I surprised myself immensely. I've never won a race before, so this was very exciting.

walked around and headed back down the course to give Laura some support down the home-stretch. then we both stretched and ate oranged and waited around to see how the top finishers came in. honestly, i was just curious to see how far off i would be from a placing time. i shocked to hear my name in the #1 slot. woohoo!


no water station, like was promised. no marked miles, like they said they would. they lost our packets. finish line food left quite a bit to be desired.
however, that stuff didn't affect me, and i enjoyed the competition, so i got what i came for.