Downtown 5k race report

Today was a beautiful day in London, ON . . . not it was about 5^oC with pretty strong winds. The course was a 2.5k loop with 2 gradual climbs, one in the first k for about 400m and one in the last 500m. After looking at the results from the last couple years and seeing numerous guys sub 16 and a couple sub 15 times I decided I was just going to go out with the leaders tuck in and let them do the work. If I enter a race I am entering to win it, and I am not going to go out there with my watch and pace the whole thing. I would rather blow up in the first k running 2:30 and at least say I did what I could to try and win then go out run 3:25 and maybe end up with a faster time.

I'm not sure what the splits were, but blow up I did. I went out with Kyle "Real Deal" O'Neil and Aaron Hendrikx for the 1st 2k. They were able to drop me we when we turned back to the finish line and were going up the little bump. For the next 500m I just cruised along with Suda who dropped back a little earlier than myself. He passed me at probably around the 3k mark. This worked perfectly for me since this is when we turned into to the wind a went back up the other little hill. I tried hanging on for as long as I could but he dropped me just at the top of the hill. Now I was stuck in no mans land listening to the thud thud thud of a guy trying to chase me down as a began to truly suffer. At 4k I decided I was close enough to the finish line and kicked it up a gear hoping it I would get enough of a gap to make it to the finish. With 500m to go I felt like I was going to throw up, and I was really starting to pay for the fast early pace. I'm glad the race finished when it did because another 100m and I was going to lose my breakfast.

I finished up 5th in a time of 16:25 which was a :25s  5k road pb. I can't complain about that at all since I have really been focusing on my swim and bike. My knee felt fine during the race, but was a little sore during the cool down. I will probably take it easy for the next week and do a lot of biking. I want it to be 100% for Knoxville and the rest of the summer season.

Suda and I at around the 2.5k mark. Thanks to Brandon from Brandon David photography for taking some excellent pictures at the race today. Check out his website at http://www.bdvphoto.com/brandondavid/index2.php#/home/