Lifetime Personal Best at 15k!

This is the face of a personal best effort!



Based on recent training and race performances, I felt fairly confident that I could get a PR here. I knew what my target goal pace needed to be (6:15 per mile) and had a solid race plan... don't go out too hard, stay on pace. The first half of the race was fairly uneventful, I stuck to my plan and hit my planned pace, holding myself back during the first mile. The day started to warm up as the race progressed, I grabbed water at each aid station, and drank some and poured it on my body for cooling. Mile 6 was my slowest of the race and had a lot of parts exposed to full sun. That's also where I started to feel the discomfort of the effort. Special thanks to the lady with the garden hose in the final section of neighborhoods. I finally started up the ramp to the Hart Bridge.



Over the winter my training included running up Paris Mountain in Greenville, SC... and as I was making my way up the Hart Bridge I kept saying to myself "Paris Mountain! Paris Mountain!" because the Hart Bridge aka The Green Monster is not as big or steep as what I had been training on. But it still hurt! Over the top I pushed onward to get back up to speed, then cruised a little bit on the downhill to gather myself, and finally cranked hard over the final flat quarter mile.







I ended up out-kicking the two gentlemen in the yellow bibs:






My finish time (chip) was 58:08 averaging 6:14 per mile. This is my best placing performance at this race and I almost broke into the top 100 males. This was my first ever award at the Gate River Run, placing 3rd in my age group!



The race swag, my age group award, and Saucony Endorphin Pro 2 racing shoes:



Results: https://my.raceresult.com/277187/results

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/10874432430