I had a great race in St. George and I am encouraged by the results. The weather was perfect: about mid to high 30s and no rain. I could also tell an altitude difference. It was nice, when I needed to suck air, that the air was there to suck. I beat my previous 5k PR by more than 85 seconds! Here are my splits:
Mile 1: 6:57 My goal was 22:00 even for the race, so I tried not to start out too fast. I was running with Coach Bill and we tried to keep it right around a 7:00 minute per mile pace. I was surprised at how comfortable it felt, so I was encouraged going into mile 2. At this point of the race, I was confident that I was going to beat my goal, but I tried not to focus on this too much because I was afraid my brain would talk me into slowing down since I was ahead of my goal pace.
Mile 2: 6:53 I just tried to keep my pace smooth and consistent. The pace started to get a little more challenging, but I felt like I could hold it. Coach started to pull ahead of me at this point, but he held back to stay with me. I started to tire a little bit towards mile 2, but he encouraged me to keep it going. That helped a lot.
Mile 3: 6:45 We picked it up here. My breathing picked up, but again, I never felt like I was running at a pace I couldn't hold. At the same time, I didn't think I could go much faster either. I got passed at the beginning of mile 3, but I did not get passed by anybody after that. Some kid in hightops was right on my heels the whole way, but he never passed me. There was no way I was going to get beat by a kid in high tops!!
We pushed the last .10 pretty good. Coach stayed with me and let me finish just ahead of him. I am thrilled with my race. It feels like my more disciplined training is paying off. | 