I actually raced a 5k that I didn’t hate.  It was the Brian Kraft 5k (holy speedy race field!) It definitely wasn’t fun, but it wasn’t horrible.  I think the difference between this 5k and other ones I’ve raced is that I raced smart.  When I did the Celiac 5k last week, it was 74 and sunny at the start and I was stupid enough not to adjust my pacing plan for the heat.  On my best day, I think I could do a 6:40 pace (20:40).  That’s the pace I went out at for the first mile of Celiac and totally blew up because of the heat (6:48; 7:34; 7:39).

Today I decided to be smart/realistic and adjust for the heat.  I maybe wasn’t smart enough, but it was an improvement!  I decided to go out at 6:50 pace and see if I could maintain that.  In retrospect, I think I should have gone out even slower (6:55 or even 7:00) and see if I had energy to hammer down the last mile.  But even with 6:50, it didn’t feel horrible, I just couldn’t maintain it for the entire time (66 and very humid out).  So my splits were: 6:50; 6:58; 7:14.  Still not ideal, but better than last week’s 5k.

I finished with a 23 second PR, with a 21:58.  Yipee!

Stay tuned for the Lola’s Waconia 5k in 2 weeks and see if I can get that down below 21.