Ok, the boys are watching Return of the Jedi so I've got a minute.
I mapped the course on Map My Run and another site (RunMapping) and it turns out it was actually an accurate 5k. My gadget was off by .1, but at the very least it gave me approximate if not a bit inaccurate splits, which the race organizers didn't provide. Pretty shod run event, but bygones.
Anyway, I've got lots of excuses for running poorly (illness, injury, wind, not feeling energetic) but thankfully I nutted up and don't have to use any excuses as 18:22 was as well as I was going to run today.
As plannned, I took it out conservatively. My gadget told me 6:15 for the mile, but again it was off and there weren't any markers on the course. The first mile was into a pretty good headwind and a slight upgrade. Felt fine and there were a fair amount of folks in front of me, so I was enjoying picking folks off. The course continued on an upgrade to just past the halfway point and then I turned onto a flat patch with the wind at my back. Interesting that at this point I was thinking maybe I was going a little to hard and didn't know if I could hold the pace. My gadget told me 12:30 at 2 miles. At this point, the course turned onto a slight downgrade all the way to the finish but I was sucking wind pretty hard. I managed to pass a guy at 2.5 miles. Some old racing instincts kicked in and I remembered to pass with some authority.
I kept on a strong pace to the finish, but I made 1 major mistake. I had my headphones on with loud music and I couldn't really hear what was going on around me. Much to my dissappointment, the dude I passed at 2.5 came back on me and sprinted by with 50 yards to go. I really didn't have any kind of speed to respond. Lesson learned on a lot of counts, no more gadget or headphones while I'm racing. I kind of feel like a knucklehead for that one.
My favorite aspect of this race was that I had a pretty solid negative split with a sub 6 on the last full mile.
I'll post about training implications later on. Right now, I am happy that I have exceeded my personal expectations by a little bit and I'm looking forward to hopefully having a good training week next week with no missed sessions. (fingers crossed)