Quick question for you folks. I'm quite new to the running scene and wanted some advice as it pertains to starting position for local 5k's.
A brief history of myself: I started running back in May of this year, everyday anywhere from 3-6 miles a pop. I'm not fast. My quickest 5k effort (as timed by my garmin) during the last 90 days has been 20:35 though I like to tell myself it wasn't run to my full potential as I ran consistent 15 sec negative splits.
Anywho, back to the question at hand. While I live and train in Colorado at about 5,000 feet, I'm vacationing on the coast of North Carolina next week and thought it would be a great opportunity to run my first organized 5k and try to crack 20 min. I've since signed up for a local race in which I noticed the past year's top finishers weren't terribly fast either.
Here's the results for last years races (PDFs) (it's a race series):
http://www.runcations.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/villageweek6overall.pdf
http://www.runcations.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/villageoverallweek5.pdf
http://www.runcations.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/villageweek4overall.pdf
Since my goal is to break 20 and if I did it would likely get me a top 5 finish, should I start the race up at the front or is there some unwritten etiquette I should know about?
Thanks in advance.