Sure, the time was a PR for the 5k for me, but it was aided and poorly executed. I am glad I did it because it was a learning experience and that is the mode I am in right now, learning. I am happy with a second place finish, but recognize the field was not that fast. Golden Harper (altra founder) took first. He was hoping for sub-16 and ended up in the 16:30s I think.
I am not going to bother to put split times because I don't know if my watch was working or what was going on. I went out too fast and slowed considerably. I have no excuses other than I couldn't make it happen perfectly today, but below is the story of how it transpired.
I got to the race with plenty of time to grab all the runmehappy gear (tent, banner, chairs, etc) and walk them to the finish line where the booth would be. I warmed up just a little because I didn't know how much time I would have after the bus dropped us off. Ended up that we had about 20 minutes at the start so I did my official warmup there. I walked up to the starting line at about 6:27 and there were cones setup but no timing strip. The one guy there said that it would be there soon and that we would start in about 5 to 10 minutes.
I turned and jogged up the canyon to keep moving. About 100 yards away, I hear a horn go off and look back to see runners starting. I cruised it to the start and asked the guy what happened. He told me that he got a call that simply said, "Start in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1." He explained that we were running off of the 10k start instead of waiting for the strip and our times would stop when we crossed the finishline strip. Ok, whatever.
For whatever reason when I saved my warmup session to my garmin, it lost satellite, or so it appeared. I stood there at the start and told the guy I was not starting until my watch was working and that I would just record my time. It seemed like it took forever so I finally just told him I was going to go. He said the race clock was at 3:31 and I told him to say go at 3:45 so he would know that is when I started.
I was obviously all alone at this point. I looked at my watch a few times and it was reading in the high 3:00s and then 4:00s. First mile was 4:54. Like I said, I have no idea if that is accurate, but it could have been. It was steep and I could tell I was going too fast, but just didn't trust what my watch was saying.
I slowed considerably and didn't feel great the last mile. I finished and after making it through the finish area I kneeled on the grass. A few minutes later I vomited once. That made me feel quite a bit better and within 5 minutes I was not really nauseated anymore.
So, there you have it. A few lessons learned.
| 
