My only goal for today was to run the first three miles and then try to run more than I walked of the rest of it. I'm pretty sure I managed that. I got to the race and into my starting corral about 5-10 minutes before my starting wave. I blame the train delay and the fact that we jammed up getting off the train due to poor logistics. Also it was a 1 mile walk from the station to my starting point. Still I managed to get there with a little time to stretch before the start.
My corral was based on my time in December, which I can't do right now, so I intentionally lined up near the back of the pack since I didn't want to get in anyone's way. Though I was keeping my pace slow to make sure I had enough fuel in the tank, I ended up passing half a dozen people before I even got to the starting line. I kept it slow and steady through the press of people. I didn't want a repeat of what happened at my last 5k when I turned my ankle dodging people at the beginning. The first mile or so went off fine. Dumped water down my back, drank a little, ran through the sprinkler, all in all a good run.
Mile 3 the course started going uphill. I ran some of it, but I then saw my first passed out runner so it seemed like a good idea to walk the hill. I made the biggest mistake of the race near this point and let myself get soaked in a sprayer. My shoes and pants got very wet, which got uncomfortable fast. The biggest part of the pants getting wet is they kept sliding down. Finally got them tied well enough to keep them from falling off. I think the wet socks attributed to my left ankle and right foot hurting.
Top of the hill meant running again. I got moving and ran to the next hill. Walked that and started running again. Since my foot and ankle were still hurting, I tried to balance my running and walking because I knew I wanted to be able to push through the last half mile and finish running. I kept moving and passed as many people as I could, walking when I had to. When I could see the sign marking the end of mile 6, I ran as fast as I could manage for the last what I assume was .4 miles.
In all it was a pretty good run. Not as fast as I hoped, but I got through the whole thing and wasn't one of the 6 people collapsed on the side of the road. Time to start training for the 15k in 10 weeks.
