Mississippi Mudd's 5K

It's been awhile since my last 5K. My body has been feeling good the past week, so I'm as ready as I'll be for this race. One of my goals this year was to break the 7:00/mile mark in a 5K. I'm close (7:05/mile) prior to this race. I was targeting an even 7:00 for this race, with the hopes of opening it up at the end to get under 21:41. It was a hot, humid night. My race strategy was for the following splits, 7:05, 7:00, 6:55 and gun it.

Mile 1: I started out very close to the front line and got a bit carried away. I felt pretty good though and only reigned it in a bit and finished the 1st mile in 6:46.

Mile 2: A bit of a hill in this mile and I felt my pace tail off a bit, but still finished with a pretty strong 6:58 and under my goal for the second mile.

Mile 3: Hurting now, I passed a runner and then he passed me and back and forth. About half way through the mile, I said to him "You run as fast as you can, then I'll catch you and run as fast as I can, and we'll keep doing that until the end." He agreed and it was on! It really helped finish that last mile @ 7:01, under my goal but still ahead of the overall goal.

Last .13: Full throttle! :41 @ 5:14 pace.

Total Mileage: 3.13
Time/Pace: 21:28/6:51
Avg HR: 165
Elevation Gain: 42ft
T/W: 83/humid, hazy-ish

Mission Accomplished! What's even better is I placed in my age group (3rd!) and received the 2nd place award (due to the fact that the 1st in my age group must have been in the top 3 overall.) My prize?!? A nice glass beer mug with the Mississippi Mudds logo and "2nd Place" engraved on it. I'll take it!!

The prize was only the second best thing of the night though. The best was sharing this run with my lovely bride and a couple of friends. While running for me is mostly a solo activity that I use to pass the time and improve my fitness, it's nights like these that I can share with others that make it all worthwhile.

My only disappointment tonight was that I could not negative split, due to my faster than normal start. However, I gave myself such a head start it didn't wind up hurting me. Still, I need to not do this!

New goal...break 21.