Club 5 mile race

Milngavie Water Works was the venue for my first race since the National Road Relays at the start of April. A fairly depleted field suggested I stood a good chance of finishing second, but I wasn't sure how big a factor heavy legs or lack of race practice might be, and there were a few participants I didn't recognise. I decided not to risk the new adiZero Tempo and gave the Newton Motus possibly their last outing. I had no particular plan other than to run at a pace I thought I would be able to maintain for the whole distance.

Ben set off fast and I followed at a gradually increasing distance as we pulled away from the rest of the field, and I was soon isolated in second place. As the course was fairly exposed there seemed to be a headwind no matter which direction I facing. My average pace dropped just below 5:40/mile during the second mile, but I lost some speed on the other side of the reservoir where the path was lined with trees, even though it seemed to be slightly downhill at this point. From then on I noticed I was slowing down very slightly, possibly a side-effect of running on my own for so long, and within the last couple of miles I started looking back in case anyone was catching up fast, but there was still a large gap. I resisted the temptation to coast and finished in 28:38 (officially 28:37), 9 seconds up on my time from 2 years ago, although that had been a highly tactical race. The Garmin measured the distance at 4.96 miles, giving me a 5:46/mile average, although a couple of other runners made it very slightly over 5. Went for a half-mile warm-down afterwards.

Pace splits: 5:40, 5:43, 5:46, 5:53, 5:48