I decided to make this my first race of 2012 for a couple reasons- 1) The weather in Ohio has been very nice this winter and today was no exception. Low 40s and sunny. Perfect running weather. 2) I joined the Ohio River Road Runners Club and most of their races are free for members. No brainer. 3) 5 miles is a nice distance to test where I am and to prepare for the Augusta Half Marathon in three weeks.
I didn't come in thinking that I would necessarily race this one more than use it as a tuneup for Augusta. I went out fairly easy in the first mile, which went around Centerville High School and made its way through the surrounding neighborhood. Pretty level first mile and I clocked in around 8:17. The second mile started with a downhill followed by a twisting uphill. I really liked this course because of all the elevation changes. I prefer courses with some rolling hills as it works more of the leg muscles than a flat course. My time was slightly faster for the second mile and I was at 16:20. For coming out easy, I really felt that I was running a nice pace and kicked it up slightly during mile 3. More uphills during this miles we continued making our way through some of the local neighborhoods. I was at 24:10 at mile 3 and was on pace to run a race of nothing but negative splits.
We ran a loop around one neighborhood for mile 4 and I was staying at a good pace. I kept reeling people in and passing them and felt surprisingly good. There was one killer hill as we started the final mile and I passed a few people here. Then we made it back towards the high school and I finished hard, passing five people in the last 200 meters, and clocked in at 38:45. I came in just looking to run this in 42-43 minutes, so I'll take it.
Next race: Augusta Half Marathon- Augusta, GA
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