Luke - 6.25

Bring In Spring 5k, 16:16 (1st place)

After it snowed 8" Wednesday morning and more was forecast for today, I wondered how bad the conditions would be for this race, but the second storm ended up missing us and it was actually high 40ºs and dry by the time the race rolled around. They did have to change the course because of downed trees on the bike path, but the race director did a good job of making a new course and shoveling all the snow from it. The new course might have been better than the old one; it was two loops, mostly on streets, with about a half-mile on the bike path each loop. A good number of turns but not really any sharp ones. The only not-great part was a little out-and-back to the start/finish line at halfway (had to cross the timing-chip mat and do a 180º). The nice thing about that was that we got first half/second half splits.

During my warmup I saw a guy I didn't recognize who looked fairly fast; I also knew Josh Gordon would be running but wasn't sure how much of an effort he planned on giving (he has been having trouble with compartment syndrome lately). I wasn't super-fresh for the race (didn't back off on mileage, didn't get enough sleep this week) but I still wanted to give it a real hard effort and try to win--after all, the winner gets a 22 of Spring Reign. At the start line I talked to Josh who said he would see during the race how he felt and go from there. There were a few other familiar faces but mostly I figured if I had competition it would be from the two I mentioned.

From the gun I took off in first, taking it somewhat easy but still going pretty fast, as I always end up doing at the start of road races. There was a pack of I think four to six of us in the first quarter-mile. By a half mile or so it was me and Josh at the lead, this guy Orestes Gutierrez who usually does shorter races but is still pretty fast a couple strides back, and the guy I didn't know a few seconds back of him. For the next mile or so Josh and I pushed pretty well and had a bit of back-and-forth, testing ourselves and each other. We came through the first mile at 5:16 and I decided that was a bit slow so I tried to pick it up a bit. Josh couldn't hang (it was his injury flaring up more than my little surge, I reckon) so I took sole possession of the lead, with Orestes a couple strides back. At halfway the half-block out and back allowed me to see how far he was behind me, and it was probably only 10-15 meters. For the next mile he was right there pushing hard to catch me, and I knew if I didn't shake him before the finish he would almost certainly outkick me. I didn't see the second mile marker (or the third, for that matter) so I wasn't quite sure how I was doing pace-wise, but each time I would hear him getting close I was able to pick it up enough that he never could pass me. Finally, at about 2.5 miles, one of my surges got me some real distance on him and I pushed hard the last half-mile to finish in first, with him right about ten seconds behind.

After the race I went to my car and changed my shoes and put on more clothes, and then joined Josh, Orestes, and two others for a cooldown. Afterward I drove a couple blocks to the Ninkasi tasting room, where the awards would be, and changed into street clothes, had a beer, a cup of soup, and a hunk of focaccia bread (all free, woo) and hung out chatting with the people I cooled down with for a good long while. For the win I got a sweatshirt and a comped entry to a Cinco de Mayo race in addition to my bottle of beer.

Overall the race was fine, I would definitely have liked a longer warmup (I got there a bit later than I'd hoped/planned/should've) but other than that the only thing I could have done better was get more rest in the week prior. The cold and wind and having gotten up at 4:40 to work on my feet for ten hours made it a bit slower, nothing I can do about that.

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