The City of Brighton claims to have the "flattest and fastest" 5k in Colorado. It's certainly the flattest I've run in the state, but the amount of turns slowed it down a little. Still, it was about as fast as you could ask for.
Breakfast, just over 1.5 hours before start:
1 teaspoon MCT oil, 1Vespa Concentrate, and a little later took about 120mg caffeine and a SaltStick.
As always, I drank a liter'ish of water first thing upon waking.
After about 1.5 miles easy warm up and a trip to the bathroom, we all had our new Hermit singlets on and were ready to head over to the start line. The RD (race director) said they had 1200 people in the race and it felt like it. All of us were right up front, and I reminded all of them that EVERYONE is going to start too fast and don't get pulled in for the first half mile or so. It turned out to be as true as ever.
I fell into 5:20-:35 effort easier than expected given the state of my body, not enough recent training and too much recent racing -and at longer, slower races. I was somewhere around 10th around a 1/4 mile in, but quickly was in 6th or 7th. The two guys way out front would either blow up and come back to me, or run very fast times. The latter surprisingly happened.
The first mile went by almost instantly. I was in 6th place around the mile marker, but quickly reeled in and passed the obvious crossfit'er in front of me to take over 5th. Without accelerating at all, I made up the 15-20 meter gap on 4th and 3rd place and breezed past before the 2nd mile mark.
The last mile I was alone and finally remembered why 5k's are so tough. I meant to wear a watch so I could've at least raced myself, but even another 15 seconds off my time wouldn't have changed my place or my lack of PR. Stale is stale, but I'm certainly overdue for a PR based on my last couple 5k's. Fresh, sharp legs and some more optimal recent training and I'd put myself around a 16:30 or so. Plus sea level wouldn't hurt.17:07 for third place isn't bad considering how I just threw this one in last minute and am pretty stale after a long season. Running the last mile alone and without a watch didn't help either but the two guys that went 1st and 2nd were over a minute ahead, so it's hard to say it would have mattered.
I ended up being the only Hermit not leaving with a PR, which I can handle. I'm so proud of these guys. A couple of them are drafting posts about this one as well, coming soon.
G. Anthony
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