Well, the Wing Ding, really, which was the first race of the morning - a competitive 5k, followed by a 5k fun run, a 1 mile fun run, and a 10k fun run. I had no idea how big a production this was, since I just found it by Googling and previous years' results aren't online. But after 5 hours of sleep, I crawled out of bed at 5:30 this morning and drove 12 miles down to Clearwater, only getting a little bit lost. Check in and the finish lines were at the high school football stadium, and I was quickly registered and heading a few blocks away to find the start. I found it, along with several thousand other runners, and warmed up a bit with a mile or so of jogging and 4 or 5 strides. I lined up a few feet behind the start, surrounded by local high school runners, and made a mental note not to fall for their rabbitty tricks.
No dice. The first mile went down in 5:43, which was way too fast. I felt alright, but I knew there was no way I could keep that up. I did have visions in my head of holding just over a 6 minute pace for the remainder, but after mile 2 in 6:17, I just tried to hold on. Mile 3 was 6:31 and slowing, but I found an extra gear when we hit the track for the finish and passed two runners. Finish time was 19:07, good for 95th place and a coffee mug.
The time was about 45 seconds faster than my last 5k, back in February, and I'm thinking that with a couple more months of good training and getting back in the habit of pacing myself, I could be ready for a PR in the mid to low 18s later this winter. Here's hoping!
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