This is the second back-to-back race I've done this month. I felt like I ran the Big Peach Fall 5 Miler pretty hard and really had no thoughts of running this one hard.
But the race started and I ended up with my fastest 5K race in Atlanta and my fastest since I made a PR in the distance at age 27 on March 28, 1998 in Eugene, Ore.
I'm really not sure why the conditions were such. The race started and my gf and I started fighting through the backfield up the rolling hills of 10th Street. I decided I would just run with her and although I am a strong hill runner, made sure my pace kept her close.
I even had to stop for a moment at 10th Street and Juniper as law enforcement allowed cars to pass (?).
The run turned onto Peachtree and we ran until about 15th Street, ducking into the Ansley neighborhood. It's rolling hills here but I had a really good groove. My feet felt pretty good and I didn't feel like I was expending very much energy.
After Mile 2 though is a huge beyond category double hill. I attacked the first part of it only to find it go up incredibly steep and I wasn't liking it. At that point I had totally lost the gf so I waited at the top of it, on Piedmont Avenue, for about 10 seconds before resuming the run with her.
The race then went into Piedmont Park. About the middle of it, a big dude passed me and I thought he was setting up a kick so I re-passed him and then we made the final turn of the race near the finish line.
I held my own until the Mile 3 marker and then did a poor man's kick in the last .1 miles. I went deep into the red zone, hitting a 5:46/mile pace.
Also of interesting note, I wore race number "1" for the first time in my life, lol. What happened was you could sign up in person at the Big Peach stores. I signed up at the Big Peach Atlanta when my gf went there the other day to pick up her gift card for placing 2nd in her age group in the Big Peach Sizzler 10K.
No one else had signed up in person for the AIDS run, so they gave me the very first bib number. It was cool, since all along the race, people shouted out "Go No. 1!" And that was a pretty nice push for the race.
Time: 1:46 p.m.
Temp: 55 degrees
Gear: LST (Jingle Bell Run), shorts, Nike Air Pegasus/D4.
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