May the Mass x Acceleration be with you

Warmup:

1 1/2 mile warmup jog in 11:27

2x500m @ 1/2M pace. I ran them a little too far, but close enough (.33-.34 miles)
2:07, 2:11, both in about 6:20-6:25/mile pace)

Race:

Four on the Fourth 4 mile race - Goal time: 23:28; Actual time: 23:27!

I felt pretty good all morning, through the warmup and pre-run intervals. I was in a relaxed and happy mood beforehand, too.

My goal was to get out a little more aggresively than usual and try to take a little more risk. I'm not sure whether I really took much risk, but I did push a little more aggresively at least. Usually my friend, Mark, goes out faster than me and I catch him after a couple miles. However, today I went out with him or slightly ahead of him. We ran together the first mile, with me usually even or slightly ahead of him. The whole first mile is downhill, with a fairly good-sized and steep downhill the first half mile, then more gradual the 2nd half. We were at 1/2 mil in 2:44, but 5:45 at the mile, so definitely slowed up a bit. 5:45 was the slowest I had wanted to be. I was thinking 5:40-5:45 would be a good start, then try to hold pace (5:52) over miles 2-3, and hang on for the uphill 4th mile (it's an out and back course).

Mile two I opened up a few second gap on Mark. Not much, though, because I was able to hear him behind me when he would cheer on other runners. Mile two was a little slower than it should've been, a little too comfortable. Still, I was gaining on runners and moving up consistently. As we approached the turn-around I saw another friend, Darrin, up ahead. He was in 12th, but not as far ahead of me as he usually is. I found out later he went out too fast (5:15) the first mile and slowed up a bit after that. I counted the runners returning as they went by me and I was in 20th.

Mile three I focused on keeping my pace down to low 5:50s. It's basically a flat to slight incline mile, and I usually am able to catch a few runners here. There was a group of 3 runners not far ahead of me at the turn-around, and I caught them pretty quickly and zoomed past them like they were standing still. I could still hear Mark behind me by the 3 mile mark. I checked my split and was under 17:30! That's more than 30 seconds ahead of last year, and slightly ahead of goal pace. I just wanted to try to get under 6 minutes on the last mile.

From the 3 mile mark you can see all the way up to the big hill just before the finish. I could see Darrin up ahead of me in his bright green shirt. He hadn't gained on me. In fact I was gaining on him. I really tried to push the last mile, kept checking the Garmin. I hit 1/2 mile to go in 2:59 for the split, so still on pace! I kept the pressure on myself, though I was slowed a bit on the big uphill just before the finish. My stomach, which was already a little queazy, really tightened up on me on the hill, and in the final sprint to the finish. As I approached the finish I saw the digital display say 23:26 so I gave just a bit more of a surge and my watch said 23:27 when I looked after the race! Woo hoo, made my goal by 1 second! I can feel good about that because the goal was challenging to begin with. Based on the time I ran at the track meet Wednesday I thought I could pull off a 23:28 if I ran a really good race. Looks like it worked out. Next is the Lakefair 8k!

It was really nice to be able to get out more aggressively, and yet still find something to push hard through the finish, and also still be able to be competitive with all the runners around me.

Splits:
1 - 05:45 - 5:45
2 - 11:45 - 6:00
3 - 17:28 - 5:43
4 - 23:27 - 5:59

Cool down:

5 mile cool down in 42:05 (8:25/mile)
I ran over the whole course again with Mark, then finished up with one more mile on my own to make it 12 for the day. The first mile we ran with a kid Mark coaches, so ran a little extra slowly.
Splits: 9:25 - 8:10 - 8:03 - 8:12 - 8:15