Edison Festival of Lights. It was a cool 60 degree evening in Fort Myers but it wasn't ideal for racing because the winds were howling. This is a pretty fun meet because it's the start of a big parade. On the 5k course, which is an out and back, there's a constant wall of people preparing for the parade and cheering on the runners. The race was pretty uneventful though. Last year this was the most competitive 5k I ran and the fastest on the roads in 14:22 so I backed off this year to be prepared for a similar race. That didn't happen. The first 800m or so was led by a crew of high school kids going out way too hard just to be seen. Then after that I was setting the pace early. If was a comfortable pace for me but I sensed that the two guys going with me, Jason Bodnar and Paul Mwangi, weren't going to be able to keep it. I was right. Right before the mile marker Mwangi came surging up beside in a move that said "I'm here to race" which I responded with a move of my own which said "you're here to race for second." And then the race was over. A 4:42 opening mile was too much for the competition to handle. Hitting the 2 mile in 9:25 I had a big gap and was running comfortably. I pretty much just ran an even paced run all by myself in this race as I ended up winning by 30 seconds even with my opting against kicking the last 600m in favor of hamming it up to the crowd and waving my way in. Lazy of me. I wish there had been better competition since I tapered for this event. Had I known it would have been such an easy victory I would have trained through it because I've got a lot of races coming up. Good run though. I was really comfortable and it's a fun event. Probably my favorite road 5k I run. |