Running of the Elk Thrive 5K

I was so not ready for my alarm to go off early again this morning (why must I get up earlier to go to a race than work?). As I stumbled around the house taking care of the dogs and getting ready to drive off to the race, thankfully I was too tired to think about whether or not I'd be ready for my second 5K of the weekend.

Thankfully, by the time I got to the race, I was wide awake (perhaps a big thank you for coffee?) and excited. Would I be able to finish in the top three of my division again and take home another award? The half and 10K runner took off 15 minutes before us, and the time until race start moved by quickly.

As I was warming up and stretching, I noticed that my legs were a bit stiff. Not surprising, but I hadn't felt anything until I started stretching. Oh well. I hoped to get off to a hot start and hopefully momentum would carry me through.

I indeed did get off to a hot start but was a bit concerned as the start of the race all felt downhill (which meant the latter half would be up) [Note: my GPS says that the first mile ended 2 ft higher than it started). The first mile was over before I knew it, and I nailed it in 7:33. I continued my momentum into the second mile although I could feel it wasn't going to be as good as the first. Still didn't feel much uphill running. I completed mile two in 7:41. [Note: my GPS says that the second mile also ended above where it started although by just 3 ft.]

I started to feel tired on the third mile, but I continued to charge ahead. I passed and was passed by a few runners on the third mile and didn't lose to much time as I finished it in an even 8 minutes. With a tenth of a mile to go, I didn't have much of a kick left in my legs, but I knew I was racing for a PR. I was able to get that final 0.1 done in a 6:13 pace, and ended up beating my PR by 5 seconds:

Woot! My first new PR of 2016. Hopefully I can beat it again in a couple of weeks at the Sacramento Zoo Zoom.

As for my "metal hunt", my time was good enough for second in my division, so I once again received a top finisher award in this race. I tried to make a cool picture showing both sides of the second place medal along with the 5K finisher medal (blah!), but it didn't turn out as cool as I would have liked:

The runner who finished first in my division also won the division last year. And in good news for me, he's 39, so he's out of the division for next year. Unfortunately for me, the top two finishers for the male 30-34 division were both faster than I and both are 34.

In yesterday's Giant Race Riverfront 5K, I finished in the top 7% of males and top 3% overall. In the Running of the Elk Thrive 5K, I finished 26th overall/18th of men which put me in the top 4% overall and the top 9% of men.