I competed in the Belleair Sunset 5k with a group of about 15 friends. The course is always quite fast, however Joe let me know that it was USATF certified. Felt great, had a first mile at around 5:17 and was completely just enjoying every moment of it. In the second mile I kept on the guy's shoulder in front of me which caused the pace to drop to about 5:30 or so. I then gradually passed him to the turnaround crossing mile 2 at around a 5:28 pace. I decided to stick with him that long with the advice of my training partner Lee, who I'm quite sure noticed I'm still new at pacing consistently. I certainly appreciated the advice. I felt really good and picked it up mile 3 in about a 5:09 pace, then finished strong. I don't often find myself in the lead, let alone have the fitness to extend it, so I enjoyed the leased glory for the moment. Second place ended up 30 seconds or so back after I crossed in 16:25. I thanked him, then went to go cheer my friends in.
5:17 overall pace.
Huge head-wind headed out, meant a nice tail wind on the return.
I need to work on my consistency with pacing, I had too much left for the end.
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