Urban Athletics Sunset & Suds 5K - Shiny new PR!

So, last night was the Sunset & Suds 5k. I had been looking forward to it since I heard about it a week or so ago. The fact is I hadn't run a 5k in over a year (Since June 2010) so I was hoping to have a really great race and set a new PR, my current being 27:58.

Walking over to Riverside Park I was already started to feel a little defeated...it was extremely windy out, and Maura even commented to me that if the wind kept up it would be hard to race. There was a threat of rain, which didn't really bother me, and the temperature had dropped to the low 60's, which was ideal. I decided to go out and race as hard as I could, and see where it took me. 

Getting to the "starting line" was a little confusing because well...there was no real starting line. The race organizers just kind of made everyone walk forward to a spot and gave us race instructions. I looked around at my friends and we all gave each other the look. You know, the look where you have no idea what the person is talking about, and no idea what the course is. Again, I just decided to follow everyone in front of me and see where it took me.

Mile 1 - Started out strong with Maura. Was treated to a really vivid sunset over the Hudson River. My watch said 8:30-8:40, and as we crossed the first mile someone called out 8:36. I thought to myself, "Perfect! Let's just keep this up...." Maura started to speed up though, and as much as I didn't want to lose her, I didn't know if I could keep up. 

Mile 2 - aka Suckfest. This is the worst mile in any 5k/4 mile race. You realize how much the pace sucks, how hard it is, and how easy it would be to give up. I totally thought about giving up, but realized how much I really wanted that PR. C'mon! Just suffer for a little bit longer! Surprisingly, I passed two or three women. Think I crossed the mile 2 marker around 17:20.

Mile 3 - Home stretch! Wahoo! Oh wait, one of the women I passed just flew by me...thought about trying to catch up but she seemed to have opened a nice gap. Focused on pushing, keeping my arms low, and breathing is always nice. Tried to use a little downhill to pick up a little extra momentum, and passed another woman. Saw Sasquatch a little less than half a mile away from the finish. He kept me going at a nice clip, and told me when we got to the next tree, we would go into an all out sprint....I thought to myself, I thought I was already sprinting!!! My Garmin tells me this last tenth of a mile was at a 7:15 pace...yeow!!

Crossed the finish line in 26:55, and was pretty happy. But then I thought to myself, could I have pushed a little harder that second mile? Did I really give it 100%? I definitely felt spent right after the race and it took me a few minutes to recover and feel normal again, but after that, I was definitely ready for a celebratory beer! Willrunforbeer would be proud of us. 

Our crew, huddled together for warmth, Blue Moon in hand!

Cheers!