Firecracker 5K Recap - One week later!

 The last race I did was a half marathon at the end of March and for my speed it was more of a shuffle than anything. This was my first race since then and with my coach.  

The couple of weeks prior to this race we had backed off of the long runs and did some specific running focused on the 5K speed.  I had dreams of setting a new 5K PR at this elevation (I set a 5K PR at a much lower elevation that I hope to break some day!).  In order to set a 5K PR I needed to average a mile pace of something like 8:15 or less.  I was optimistic to start with but after a workout or two of trying to hold that pace I knew it wasn't in the books.  So I re-adjusted and just wanted to beat my time from the previous year (27:10).  

It was kind of odd because the race was on Thursday rather than a Saturday when most races are held. But it is what it is.  The weather turned out to be pretty good because we had been having some high temperature's leading into it.  It ended up being in the high 50's to the low 60's with very little wind.  

The friend I ran the race with last year was running again this year but knew he had just recently started running again so I was on my own.  Much like last year I did a 5-10 minute warm up with a few strides to get the legs going.  

Last year I took a couple of licorice chews that I had laying around and this year I just went with a gel 20 minutes before the race was to start.  

I lined up with maybe 6 minutes to the start.  Probably a little more forward than last year but definitely not the front of the line.  Last year I was running by power and this year I just wasn't sure how to be pacing myself.  I eventually decided that I was going to try and run the first mile at 8:45 and then work my way down from there.  When the gun went off I was off.  I'm not sure if I started to far forward but I found myself being passed a little bit and then I passed a few people and by the mile point I don't think anyone passed me.  I felt really strong all of the way but was still in that 8:40 per mile zone.  We hit the bridge over the tracks and things didn't feel great as they usually do when you go over something like that. But I pushed and I passed a few people.  Afterwards I saw that on that bridge my heart rate hit a high of 192!  That's the highest I've seen it before!

I did get past in the last 200 meters by a gal I had passed on the bridge which I was bummed about but you can't beat everyone.  I finished in a time of 26:55.  Only 15 seconds faster than the previous year.  

I thought it should have been more but that's the time that it was that day.  It was a C race for me.  Despite that it is still a bit discouraging to know I've put in a lot of miles since last year and I only got 15 seconds improvement.  Perhaps I should have ran faster at the start and just slowed on the bridge.  Maybe because I ran by power last year and this year has been a lot of heart rate training.  Or maybe last year I just put in a lot more work at the 5K pacing/speed than I did this year.  Despite all of that I'm fine with it.  I know I'm a lot further ahead of where I was last year despite a less than stellar result.  I hope that some of the fitness will show in my upcoming trail race that I do every year.  It's a B or B+ race for me and then I have a half marathon after that.