Eastern Pen. Breakout 5K

I was shivering in my shorts while filling out the race registration. It was going to be a cool blustery race. The perfect temp for me to be running, but cold when your standing around waiting to race. Heather and I bumped into Steve G. and for the second race in a row I chatted with Steve before the race began.

My goal was to take the first mile hard but hold back a little and try to pick it up during the race. After the the initial rabbits dropped of I was in 4th place. #1 and #2 were quickly pulling away and definitely out of reach. The guy ahead of me was running about the pace I was aiming for so I just stayed behind and bided my time. Mile 1, 5:44. Seemed to fast for how good I was feeling and I decided that it was short, I'm not sure if it really was. The second mile of this race brings you into the campus of Girard College. We looped around and mile 2 passed in 6:07. That seemed about right.

I still had some gas in the tank and decided to make my move passed the guy ahead of me. I made sure to pass as quickly as I could sustain and I was lucky that he didn't answer. From here I just wanted to finish as hard as I could and I was thinking maybe, just maybe, sub 18:00. Down Corinthian Street and around Eastern State Penitentiary. I was giving it all I had but sub 18:00 was just a little to fast for me and I finished in 18:10. A decent time and a bit faster than I had predicted for myself before the start. A good race. More than 25 seconds off my PR but with the low mileage over the past several months, I'll take it.

I cheered Heather through the finish and she finished in third as well, just a few seconds off of last years time.