A little bit of snow last night and the roads are slushy with ice in spots. At 8AM the sidewalks and roads are fairly dangerous for running, but by 9AM it is almost all slush. Still I will have to be careful and I am not going for any speed records today. It is cold enough for me to have long pants, jacket, hat and gloves. The gloves will come off mid race.
Start - On the track as usual here. Crowded around the first turn and I try to be patient. Moving up when there is an opening. Now the little uphill from the track and that is the slipperiest part.
Mile 1 - 7:54 - A runner next to me sees me look at my watch as we pass the mile marker. He asks "are we under 10 minutes?" I tell him it was 7:54 and that is the fastest mile I have run all year.
Turn to the road just before the 5 mile and 5K races split. I have done this so many times I know that as soon as we all make the left turn, there will be a cone and a turn around spot, since I am doing the shorter race today. A volunteer had said something about 5K runners stay right, and as I approach the turn on the left side of the road I now see what he meant. We are not taking that left turn, just staying straight and the cone is on this road, over on the right. Not a big deal, but it might have cost me a few seconds. Martinho is behind me and he will tell me that he turned left, then had to turn around and cross the road and it messed him up so that he never could catch me. On the way back I see Martinho, Mike and Judy....fun to have these people to race with for so many years.
Mile 2 - 7:54!! Even split. So surprised and happy, though not as fast as I would like. Still I will take it. Try to keep it up. No one close that I can chase, and no one right behind me either. Careful with the turns and ease up for the hill to the track.
Mile 3 - 8:03 Now run as fast as I can to get under 25 minutes.
Finish - 3.14 miles on the GPS. My chip time is 24:54 so I think they were only chipping at the finish. I had a 6 second lag to get to the start line, where I started my watch, so I will record 24:48 as my unofficial time. Just a few seconds slower than my last 5K and for New Year's Day with cold and slush, I will take it.
In the old days we would now sit around for ages as the results were tabulated by hand from the poster boards. But with Terry and family doing the timing, I can walk upstairs and have them see my number and right away give my a little sticker print out of my results and my third place in my age group ribbon. This is great, because for a little New Year's craziness I have decided to head right back to Olympia and join the Club Oly group run (5.5miles) that starts at 11AM. I make it there in plenty of time and have a nice run, getting 2017 off to a good start.
24:48
25th of 102
Race#406, 5K#108
*****
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