Bastille Day 5k (7-10-08)

My only goal for this race was to PR. I did that in March when I ran a 19:40. Although that was fairly recent, I was confident that I'd beat that because lately I've been progressing rapidly. I didn't tell anyone, but I thought maybe I had an outside chance of running sub 19:00.  This was a big race (5,000 peeps) so I knew it would be a competitive field. 

Did a lil warm up, some light stretching, and lined up close to the front. The horn sounded, and off we went. I didn't have to do much weaving because I lined up so close to the start. Moments before the race began, I said, "WTF, I'll go for the sub 19:00, I've got nothing to lose." Sub 19:00 is a 6:07 pace. So my game plan was to do the 1st mile in 6:15, 2nd mile at 6:07, and then see what I could come up with at the end. Boy, was I wrong...

I'm always a mess during the first couple minutes of the race. My mind is going in a million directions, my breathing is completely erratic, and I just can't seem to find a rhythm. But about half-way into the first mile, I hit my stride and fell into a groove. Nonetheless, I could tell that I went out waaaaaay too fast in the first mile.  I realized that I had to ease off the pace or else I was gonna crash. So during mile 2 I backed off without trying to give up too much ground. A few people passed me, but I let em go, I had a feeling I'd get them later. 

I hit mile 2 waaaay slower than I had wanted, shit!  I goofed by backing off too much in that 2nd mile. HOWEVER, I didn't mess up that badly, because sub 19:00 wasn't out of the picture yet. But if I wanted it, I need to really step it up despite feeling very fatigued. So I took it into a higher gear in the last mile, and began passing people. I was reeeeeeeally feeling tired at this point, but the thought of sub 19:00 kept me fighting on. Ok, it was bad, really bad! I was HURTING. But I didn't get passed at all in the last mile, and with a half mile to go, I really turned on the after burners. 

Just as the 3 mile marker came in to sight, my watch read 18:20. Shit! It's gonna be soooo close!! I kicked like I've never frigging kicked before!! I mean I really gave it EVERYTHING. I crossed the line, and saw that I missed it by 2 friggin seconds!!  Oh well.  I got a couple of high-fives, and "nice jobs" by dudes I passed in the last quarter mile, so that felt nice. 

Mile 1- 6:06
Mile 2- 6:17
Mile 3- 6:03
0.1- 0:35
FINISH- 19:02 (6:08 avg pace) 

Sure I'm a little frustrated about missing my goal by 2 seconds, but this was almost a 40 second PR within four months- so I'm pretty happy with the outcome. 
As always- thanks for reading, and thanks for your support. 

ETA: I just looked at the splits from that 19:40 5k and they look eerily similar. I think I need to figure out a better pacing strategy... 
Mile 1- 6:18
Mile 2- 6:32
Mile 3- 6:12
FINISH- 19:40