Notes
6th place, 4:17. I haven't run under 6:00 for more than 2 weeks so this was more or less a test of talant. I wasn't particularly nervous. I was going into it to have fun, knowing this was on the opposite end of the spectrum from my best race distance. However, I still wanted to test myself so when we took off I put myself right with the leaders. It is a downhill course with the last 200m bending slightly back uphill (-68 ft/+16 ft). I just let the gradient take me and flowed along for that first 400m. there weren't any big hitters in the field so I considered myself in the hunt for some money (top 3). I was locked into focus when as cone on the side of the road broke me out of it. It had a "2" on it and for a moment I thought it was indicating 200m before deducing it was the half mile cone. I wasn't checking for splits but this broke my concentration and I began to think a bit too much. I had let a gap form and gambled on getting them back late. Mechanically I felt relatively smooth for the pace I was going, so I thought I could snag a few seconds back on the last 200. I hit about a K at the baseball fields and that's when the lactic storm began brewing in my quads. I was starting to feel the burn with each lift of the leg and gave up hope of the money position by 1200m. I was, however, in a good enough sport to potentially snag 4th if I could summon a kick but the acidosis that I had accrued was settled into my muscles and I couldn't generate the necessary power for a final sprint. I kept working towards the finish and unfortunately got sniped about 10m from the finish to get bumped from 5th to 6th. My throat burned terribly afterwards, it has been forever since I've run at that intensity. The downhill aspect made it a ton of fun and despite getting dipped at the line and not making money I certainly surpassed my pre-race, low-bar goal of running under 4:30. I would love to do this again next year, but I hope to be back in Champaign to take back my Freedom 5k title.