Lined up about 3 rows from the front and anticipated the kids lined up at the start to go out quick but tire out. I had my eye on 2 guys who looked fast (saw one of them warming up and he had good running form). 1 of the kids and an older guy took the lead on first half mile and I was within 5 seconds of them in 3rd. The other guy I was watching passed me right before the first mile and he seemed to be in control so I just ran behind him as I was thinking that he would speed up and I will try my best to keep up with him and have him drag me up to the leaders. Right around 1.5 miles, we both caught the kid who was now in 2nd place and the older guy with very high cadence had put some distance - about 10 seconds or so and pulling away. I realized that I was faster on the downhill than the guy I was running with and decided to accelerate and create a little gap. Was able to pass him for 2nd but 1st place guy was now about 20 sec ahead. I tried to catch him but was starting to feel gassed and also had tightness on my right hamstring so was a little worried. Tried to keep going and tried to keep cadence high - not used to racing over threshold this long but tried to keep it going. I wasn't making much headway on the leader but 3rd place was not too far behind me so I had to push. On the last turn with about 100m to go, I had a chance to look back and saw that I had about a 10 sec lead so just made sure I didn't get caught in a last minute sprint. Saw that the clock had turned to 20:00 so wasn't going to get into 19:xx and ended up with a 20:25. PR for a true 5K race (my previous PR was on a sprint triathlon on course that was probably short 100m so this was actually my fastest pace yet. Set PRs for 1km and 1-mile according to my Garmin. Turns out that 3rd place was actually in my AG so I ended up taking 2nd overall and 1st in AG.

This was first 5K run in probably 4 years so was just establishing baseline for this season. In hindsidht, I think I marked the wrong person and should have gone after the old guy early in the race and he may have been able to motivate me to stay with him and have a shot at an overall win. No cramps so had room though the tight right hamstring was worrisome. Good race though considering I haven't done a short distance race in a while and I can build on it. I hope to get under 20:00 this year. This was actually a PR for a stand-alone 5K run for me by about 30 seconds!

Not much, just jogged for about 200m or so up an down the finishing area to cheer other people coming in. Walked around and then stayed in the car to keep warm while waiting for awards ceremony.


Lack of 5K specific training. I had some base from the half-marathon/marathon and half-ironman training but really need to get used to racing the shorter distances again and get more efficient in running.


For a smaller race - this was pretty organized. Nice raffle prices (2 oakley sunglasses and a fitbit) at the end.