Firecracker 5k

The Markeys picked me up at 7:15am in the rain. We signed up and got our race numbers in the rain, then warmed up for about a mile in the rain. When it was time to race the nice cool rain stopped, leaving behind a steamy, muggy mess. This stuff was really hard to breath. Alicia had a mild asthma-like attack about 5 minutes into the race and had to stop for a minute. I was wheezing like a 300lb fat man running after an ice cream truck for the last mile.

This was a nice race to work on sustained speed. My plan was to go out at about a 8:30 min/mile pace for the first mile and build from there, hoping to negative split. I found it hard to pace myself and I wanted to stay with the pack. Shawn and I were next to each other for most of the race and we both went out in about 7:20. I tried to fall back a bit to recover. It was an out and back course, so we had a good idea about the hills and distance for the second half. At about 16 minutes, I sped up and gave it my final efforts. The last 200 yards were hell, but my time was pretty good for me, especially with the hills and swampy weather.

The results are posted on Races2Run.com.