Not What I Expected - Forest City Road Races 5k

First of all, big thanks to the Daleys for putting us up last night. It's always good to get together with friends, especially when the kids get to play, and there's a race involved. Maybe that's just my opinion, but I stand by it.

The weather was threatening when we arrived on course. There were predictions for serious rain, but it seemed to be holding off at least for a while. Once check-in was complete, I decided the best way to warm-up would be to run a lap of the course, that way I could see what I was getting into. Those volunteers setting up for the race were a bit surprised to have someone coming through so early, but at least I found the least crowded port-a-potties. I felt pretty good after the warm-up and was ready to go when we stood at the line.

With a small field, I figured I'd be near the front, so once the initial sprint was done and I'd found my pace, I was sitting around 10th. I wanted to hit 3:45/km and with a downhill stretch to start the race, hitting splits of 3:42 and 3:43 figured I was good stead. The briefest of showers helped to cool things down a bit. I had picked up a few spots and sat comfortably in 5th. Then somewhere in the third kilometre, things just fell apart. I can blame a few seconds on the incline during kilo 4, but I struggled home with 3:52, 4:05, and 4:00. I've finished faster during tempo runs and wasn't working that hard. I'm not sure what happened to my legs, but luckily there wasn't anyone to take advantage and I held my place all the way to the line.

Official results:
19:32 Gun time
5/332 OA, 1/16 AG

It's a lovely course, and would make for a fast race, but I was a mess. I know I'm complaining about 5th and winning my age-group, but I was nowhere near my target time. This was supposed to be setting myself up to attack 18:low in a couple of weeks. Instead, I'll just be trying to shoot for the same goal as today. Training-wise, there isn't much I can do at this point to correct for the next race, but I'll have to add more speedwork, and a bit more suffering to get myself prepped for later in the year.