Sunday, April 20, 2008 [15M]

Zippy 5K. 20th place in 15:34. I was up at 5 this morning, grabbed a bite to eat and stayed in bed for another half hour. I watched the US Women's Olympic Marathon trials for about an hour before driving out to Golden Gate Park for the race. I was there with a little over an hour before the start so I had enough time to pick up my number and chill for a while before heading out on my warm-up. I did an out and back on the first mile of the course, which was also the last mile in reverse. The gun went off on time and I got out with the leaders in a big group. Came through the mile in 4:50 and started falling back as we went around Stow Lake, coming through the 2 mile in 10:00. I tried to pick it up a bit on the 3rd mile but couldn't get the legs moving much faster and only managed to split a 5:04. I finished with a decent kick and almost caught a guy at the line but he managed to barely hold me off. After the race I went out on a long and slow cool down around the park. I was shooting for 7 or 8 miles but I let myself wander around without looking at my watch and by the time I decided to head back I was pretty far out so I ended up putting in about 10. Not a bad day overall, had a decent race and managed to get a good start to the week mileage-wise.