Casey Terrell Memorial 5k

I'm late on my race reports due to a job change coupled with a move. I just moved out of the Dayton area, but had two races (naturally) before I left. This first one was a couple of weeks ago in Xenia. I've had great luck running races in Xenia by placing in the two 5ks I've ran there and getting a PR at the half marathon. But my training has taken a hit due to this move. My realistic goal was to just run a good, hard race.

This course was interesting. We started out by crossing the parking lot at the FOP Lodge to get to a steep and long downhill toward the bike path. I wanted to start out at a conservative pace and run negative splits but this start did not allow for that. I flew down the hill and immediated knew that I was running way too fast. This was a small 5k with no mile markers, so I'm not sure what kind of splits I ran, but the first mile was way too quick. Next, we made our way to the bike path (the same one we run during the ORRRC Half) for a nice, flat straightaway. I had no problem with this portion of the race until we got past the halfway point. I knew I was in the top five, but I wasn't sure if I could hold this kind of pace. I had stopped passing people and the next person was a good 50 meters away. Instead, I focused on not getting passed during the second half of the race. We continued along the bike path, until roughly the 2.3 mile mark, until we made our way to that hill again. Except this time we had to make a long trek up this thing. I struggled uphill and just managed to keep my position. A quick left turn back into the parking lot and I had a solid 21:29 and a fourth place finish! Not too bad for managing very little training over the past few weeks.

I did stick around for the awards and I did wind up winning my age group. This was a very well organized race which I would run again if I wasn't out of the area. The goodie bags actually had useful stuff in them and the snacks after the race were fantastic. Next up is my last race in the Dayton area.