Notes
To the starting line a little frazzled. As I was doing my .80 mile, 8 min warmup kept telling myself to just focus and now it would be crucial to keep the first mile at proper pace. Alot of people at the race. Over 400 including probably about 100 walkers.
See a young kid I dont recognize doing some last min striders. He will be one to watch out for. Dont see any other of the usual suspects except Doug A who is pushing one of the triumph rollers. They take off 5 min prior to the rest of the group.
From the gun, the Kid tucks in right behind me and is one step to my left and behind me through the first mile. Mile one split of 5:53. At this point I am thinking this: If I cant gap him by mile two he will stay with me until he decides to make his break. At that point, I am pretty sure this old man is screwed. Come through 2 miles in 11:43.xx for a 5:50 split. At the 2.25 mile mark he makes a small surge and puts about 4 seconds on me. My focus is holding even pace through 3rd mile and not going with him as he is cranking it up a notch. He has 7 seconds on me when we turn L onto Kiwanis road. Now just a small incline then levels out to the finish. Mile 3 elapsed = 17:35 for a 5:52 split. Speed up a little at the top of the incline but about 10 sec back now and not pushing the pace any more at this point. 12 seconds for the final .04 miles of the course with a distance of 3.04 miles on my garmin.
Official time of 17:47.11 according to my wife as we had to go after the race completed so I could get to a 9:00 seminar.
Pleased with the splits and the overall time. Think with a little more tweaking can bring the final 1.1 miles down another 10-12 seconds. Considering all the distractions consider it a win/win as nothing appears to be broke/sore/damaged post-race.