Eliot 5k

After a reasonably good week of training, I was feeling good going into the Eliot 5k on Saturday.  My repeat mile workout on Tuesday was better this week (5:29, 5:29, 5:31, then 200m at 31) than last Thursday (5:37, 5:41, 5:35) but I missed my long run, and my mileage was relatively low.  My core work was sacrificed a bit as I was loading wood for the winter.  Hopefully I can get back to that twice a day.

Alex hit his PR for the 5k twice in his last two races (22:30 and 21:55), and Nick has been 4th and 3rd in his first two X-C races this season (2 mile races).  He is still nursing an injury, and not been running particularly well yet, but he wanted to come along for this 5k race.

The day was warm and humid, and we had to leave at 6:15 AM to get to Eliot.  I did not sleep well, and my sleep for the week was reduced as well.  The course starts downhill, and then uphill for the final mile.  On the way down, Nick and I discussed taking it easy on the first mile and then working hard for the final mile to get even splits.

After the first mile, I did indeed go out perfectly, 5:38.  Then, the entire group I was running with fell back.   I realized that the 16 or so runners that took off were already out of my view, and I found myself compeltely alone.  I came back with 5:52 for mile two.  Unfortunately, that took a lot out of me, and  I got caught from behind by two runners in mile three.   The three of us finally caught the one guy that fell off the pace from in front, halfway through the last mile.  I needed to kick it in strong (31s for the last 0.1) to pass the two I was running with coming into the finish, but my time was a relatively poor 18:12.  That was the same as my 5k split in the 5 miler from last race.  Yuck.

At least Nick had a good race, at 20:12 (PR).  We both won our respective age groups.  Next week is another local 5k, hopefully I can do better.

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Darin