Peach Festival 5 miler -- Sun. August 19

Invited F and R along for the post-run breakfast, and Ivan was there too with C. Nice turnout and a _perfect_ day -- cool, but going on very sunny, dry but no wind. The Peach Festival Queen started us off and it was helter-skelter at first, the Wilbraham HS x-country team all out there very keen. Aiming to go steady for the first two miles, I kept right on target, between 6 and 6:30 (6:12, in fact), then mile three (which felt tough) was a 6:23. The course doesn't vary much, and it's pretty fast: road, some inclines, but no hills, lots of corners. Half way into mile 4 it was me going solo, as I overtook the last guy I could still see ahead (the last of the leaders were just out of sight), and I managed to just pick up the pace for a 6:21, then I got some more encouragement from the traffic cop (on a bicycle, go Wilbraham!) and pulled a 5:56 (!) but still not the end--0.11 miles more before the finish, and I slowed up a bit back to 8:6 mph range. Still, the race is a 5 miler, so my time goes down as follows:

Time: 31:53
Distance: 5 miles
Speed: 9.41

Comment: Not that I run it often, but a new PB in the distance. I was aiming for 32:30 (6:30s) and *hoping* to break 32. Just managed to get my wish, and the 5:56 mile is a bonus. After doing the 13 miles on Friday, it feels even better.