It was a warm, almost 80 degree, evening in White Bear Lake and the humidity was fairly high. It had been a year since I last ran a 5k and I wasn't sure what to expect.
About 200 of us toed the starting line and when the starter sent us on our merry way I flew out of the gate and after about 100 yards knew I was going way to fast so I slowed to what I thought at the time would be a more sustainable pace. As I arrived at the mile one marker I looked at my watch and it read 6:04, surely that couldn't be right there was no way I could sustain this pace but I decided to press on see what would happen. I was certain that by the time I reached mile 2 I had slowed considerably so I was thoroughly suprised to discover my watch said 12:14 at this point in the race. I had just run the fastest two miles of my life and I was starting to really feel it!
I pressed on but felt the energy leaving my legs and the third mile became a challenge but I made it through it. Upon reaching the three mile mark I turned on the burners for one last pick-up to take me through the finish line. I ran into the chute and straight through the other end as quickly as possible as
I grabbed the edge of the large garbage can and started to dry heave. I had nothing left, I had just averaged 6:36 for the race finishing in 20:28 and a new PR for the 5k, beating my previous best by over a minute (21:31). Who says you can't improve with age!
Later in the evening I raised a glass of wine to Ian Connor for all his support and encouragement and his blasted whistle at our Wednesday track workouts!
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