Heartland 5k

I'm a bit behind (I know, shocker) and need to catch up prior to this week's 5k.  The Heartland 5k took place in nearby Lexington and utilized the bike path and some village streets.  I felt really good going into this one and was looking for around 20:00 or the usually elusive sub-20:00.

The temperature was very good at race time at about 50 degrees.  It got much warmer as the day went on, but it stayed very nice during the race.  I took a pre-race jog around Heartland Church, the race venue, which is something I normally don't do prior to a 5k.  The thought process is that I normally don't do an actual warm-up and then wind up going out too fast.  This strategy worked as you'll soon see.

I lined up near the front of the meager start line.  Two high school age runners were up there, so I lined up with them and hoped for the best.  The gun went off and we headed around the church on a grassy path and then to the bike path soon after.  I felt very good and kept up with the other two runners, settling into third place.  We headed out on a long straightaway on the bike path and I just put it on auto-pilot.  There was plenty of shade and I was able to keep nice and cool during the early part of the race.  We turned off the path and headed toward a residential area at the one mile mark.  The first mile clocked in at a fast 6:08.

This was an extremely fast mile.  I let off the gas a bit as we made our way through the town on several small village streets.  The only hill of any significance was roughly at the halfway mark but it wasn't very steep.  The other two runners were ahead of me a bit and the next one behind me was maybe 50 meters or so behind.  We made a loop around and headed back toward the path.  The second mile clocked in at another fast 6:32.  I usually crap out on the second mile but a 12:40 after two miles is very fast for me.  We made our way back to the bike path for the final mile.  I knew I didn't have much left, but I wanted to give it a go for a sub-20:00 race.  I focused on maintaining rather than changing my speed at all.  The second place runner was barely ahead of me.  I didn't think I had a chance to catch him and kept working at maintaining pace.  The third mile came in at 6:27.  We finally wound up back at the church and headed back to the grassy path for the finish.  I crossed in third place with a surprising PR of 19:39!

How this happened is beyond me.  I am focusing on shorter races more this year, however, I haven't really been doing speedwork.  The mileage is still there but the speed is not.  I'm obviously thrilled with the result as I had not PR'd in the 5k since 2013.

I'm hoping to keep up this nice streak of solid 5k races.  I have finished the last three 5k races in fourth, second, and third places.  The next one is coming up in just a few days, though the course looks more challenging.

Next race: 1LT Michael L Runyan 5k- Ashland, OH