Lining up at the start was pretty interesting. Mayor Marty Walsh was there along with a few gubernatorial candidates getting some solid face time with the crowd of ~2500 runners and numerous spectators. Terry made a comment as we were lined up looking back at the crowd of runners - it really had a 'big race' feel as the crowd was packed in there and you could look back to see rows and rows of runners. It was also the first time that my niece, Annie, ran a 5k - so that must have been fun for her being in the big crowd.
When the gun went off there were 5 or 6 ding-dong's sprinting for about 200 meters, as usual. It was almost funny though, because a few of them were a little bigger. Anyways, I settled into a quick pace and Terry was right on my shoulder, with Kevin and Phil a stride behind. The first mile is flat and maybe a little downhill, and we hit the mile at around 5:28. Nothing too crazy, but I was surprised at the number of runners ahead of us. As we turned onto VFW Parkway the road gradually went up, and Terry made a hard move right around here to pass me. He put some good distance on me, and we were each passing a handful of the runners who went out too fast.
As we took a right onto Corey Street, we went up another short incline (either there, or one of the other little side streets) and I was able to make up some ground on Terry here. This was a tough spot though, it felt like I was really working and you can never tell with Terry whether he's just cruising or working hard. I'm not exactly sure where I passed Terry, but I think it was right before the start of the next uphill.
I turned into one of those loud grunting runners, and as we started on the hill I kept my eyes half shut and just started working. I don't think anyone passed me on that last long hill, and thank god - I was working hard and that would've sucked. Once we leveled out I knew we were about a quarter mile from the finish and I started to eye runners ahead of me. At that time, it seemed there was only one runner within striking distance (about 20 meters ahead) - so I started to semi-kick right and started eating up chunks of pavement. Once I passed him, I realized I had a chance at a second runner who had been waaaay ahead of me, and I really opened up my stride. I could see that he was hurting and I was just hoping that he didn't have anything left. With barely any room to spare, I was able to pass him at the line. Gotta get those points for the Pub Series!!!
Splits:
5:28
5:53
5:45
.33
12th place in 17:38 out of 2530 participants!
No comments:
Post a Comment