I will credit this win (first ever 5k win) to whoever locked Dennis Simonaitis' keys in his car. Don't quote me on it but apparently something he needed for the race was locked in his car so he couldn't race. I guess the running Gods were on my side today.
The Race: I took off out of the gate in the lead and held it to about the first mile mark. First split was about 5:10. At that point a young kid, possibly in his late teens or early 20's, caught up but didn't pull away and Albert wasn't far behind. I ran beside or slightly behind the young kid from mile 1 and through the turn around. Mile 2 split was slightly slower at about 5:20. The turn around probably slowed us a bit and I was trying to conserve energy for the finish. At the 2 mile mark we were still side by side and for the next 3/4 mile he put in a few small surges. Fortunately they weren't big surges and I was able to stay within a few feet. By mile 2.75 I knew I had a shot so then I just had to figure out how long I should or could wait to put in a surge. I figured by mile 2.9 it was now or never so I kicked as much as I could and to my surprise the young kid didn't follow. I was obviously happy with the result considering the weather and the fact that the season just started. After reviewing past 5ks, which I don't run a lot, I discovered that this might actually be a PR for an honest 5k course; my previous best was a 16:23 run at the Heart of Holladay in 2001. My excuse for not improving my 5ks has been and will continue to be that they I don't care enough and they HURT! :)
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