It’s never as easy as it seems!

Yesterday’s race went pretty poorly. I finished in 27:55 despite declaring my goal of breaking 27:00. My splits were roughly:

• 5:30
• 5:40
• 5:45
• 5:35
• 5:25

It was cold, high 30s at the start and the wind made miles 2 & 3 killer.

I followed my plan. I didn’t get pulled out too fast and felt strong-ish from 3.0 – 4.5. The splits were just slow.

That’s the weird thing – I didn’t feel good but I didn’t feel BAD. I just couldn’t run any faster. Once I saw 5:30 for the first mile I knew there weren’t any 5:20s on the way.

This one stings. After the 3200m I was pretty confident. This feels like a step backward. I’m chalking it up to a bad day, but when it’s the race you’ve been targeting it just feels worse.

Ian ran 2:49 today in the marathon which is awesome. That plus this 8k result may mark the full transition to marathon training. I’ve been resistant, mostly because I don’t think I can run more than 50mpw without getting hurt, but it may be time!