Luke - 8.5

Bring In Spring 5k, 1st place, 16:55.

The race was at 6pm, so I got to the park at about 5, registered using the comped entry Zack won last Saturday, and warmed up for about a half hour. The weather was crazy nice, maybe even a little hot. Did some strides ten or fifteen minutes before the start, and as I heard the guy start doing announcements, about five till, I changed into my race shirt--a long-sleeved button-up dress shirt. Didn't feel like wearing a jersey for this one so I decided to have a bit of fun with it. Got to the front of the group of 130 or so people, and away we went.

At the start I went to the front with a guy I have talked to before named Josh Gordon, a runner in his 30s who does a ton of mileage and I think runs about 15-flat. I asked him what he was shooting for today and he said he just wanted to pace it out for a tempo. He asked my goal and I told him I was going 90%, so about 16:40. One other runner was with us, an older guy (in his 40s). The three of us came through the first mile together. I had gone watchless and there wasn't anyone giving times, so I don't know what my split was. It was hard, but I could have gone faster. After the first mile the older guy dropped back a little, and then about a half mile later I pulled ahead of Josh and was alone the rest of the way. No split at 2 miles either, but I'm guessing it was about the same pace, give or take 5 seconds. There were four turns in the final half-mile and at each one I checked behind me to see how much of a lead I had. Probably picked it up slightly with a half-mile to go, and had maybe a 5-second lead, but I think I slowed down the last quarter-mile; definitely didn't kick. I thought I won by two or three seconds, but the results have me at 16:55 and Josh Gordon at 16:56, so I guess he kicked and made it fairly close.

Afterward I cooled down for about twenty minutes and then headed to the Ninkasi tasting room for the post-race beer. Had a pint of Spring Reign, a decent bagel, and a slice of Little Caesar's pizza, which I'm convinced every race in the world should have. Got a second pint from a friend's mom who had walked and graciously donated her pint to me, and then had another two half-pints from her friend and her daughter (my friend), who didn't finish theirs. For winning, I got a sweatshirt (not hooded, but still a good design and quite comfortable), a 22 of Spring Reign, and a comped entry into the Oregon Marathon Relay, which I was already planning on doing.

Overall a successful day (I mentioned the beer, right?) even though the effort felt like my time should have been a bit faster. We'll see how I fare in my next race when I'm going hard and wearing a singlet.

Oh and there's an article here about the race here by the third-place guy, who actually thought I'd come straight from work...