I raced a 5k yesterday. It was a beautiful morning, the sun was shining and there was a good breeze blowing. The gun went off and so did the runners, round the bus loop we went and then out of the school parking lot and up the hill... I ran a strong first mile in 6:30 but it took a lot out of me and I slowed to 6:50 for the second mile.
The third mile was a real struggle taking way to long (don't know exactly how long). However as I reached the last .1 I was running alongside another guy and the competitive juices kicked in as we sprinted for the finish, I edged him out by a yard. There's something really sad about taking great delight in beating a 55 year old to the line! I can only hope that I can still do this fifteen years from now.
I finished in 21:32, a 6:56 pace. It was a new PR for me and the first time I've broken the seven minute barrier in a race. It was also the first time I've placed in my age group since starting to run two years ago (I took third). The last time I won something in a race I was ten years old and it was the "wheelbarrow race" at our elementary school sports day, Paul Calvert and I took first place!
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