Rafters 5 miler (PB) -- Sun. Apr. 25

Hadn't signed up early for this one, deciding to play it by ear. Ken reminded us we had a Swiftie team cup to defend, so I figured I'd go along and run it with him; Bill, who I bumped into on Sat., agreed to similar. Sunday started rainy, but headed off to town (dropping the Tall one at work en route) and arrived at 10. Paid my $23 and saw Ken, who told me there was no team division this year. Too bad; went off to warm up, and did a mile and stretched a bit, then it was time to go. Nice crowd, with four from BHS (girls, no boys this year), and Weijia, plus a few other familiar faces.

Started off with Savannah as my pace target, but then she went out really fast, doing a 6:30 first mile! Half-way through that, Bill came alongside and said, "I'll regret this, but I think I can catch the guy in the green shirt (i.e. the leader)." And off he went. I felt good enough to start working on catching the guy in front, and then the next one. I could see Bill ahead, and Joe F. was moving up on him, but not too many others. As we turned at Hamelin to go up the hill I had one guy still sticking to me, but by the next junction he was back a bit and I was moving to reach the guy ahead, who I figured out eventually was probably Sanjay A. from UMA. Took a long while to make an impression, but as we passed Triangle street I was close and as we started up the hill towards Brueggers I came alongside and asked if he was indeed Sanjay--I think it must have been a bit of a surprise, 見知らぬやつがこうのとうの言って、and after a brief introductory exchange I found myself pulling ahead. I pushed on hard to the crest at Amity, and then felt nauseous after the effort but determined not to lose the advantage. Pushed hard and saw sub-5:00 briefly on the digivice as I went down the hill, now chasing Bill and dodging the 5K runners who were on the same route. Joe F was out of sight, but I made some ground on Bill, and as I crossed Univ Drive I hammered to the end, feeling pretty good. Joe had been running bandit, so I came in 3rd overall!

Time: 31:27 (GPS 31:26)
Distance: 5 miles (GPS 4.97)
Pace: 6:18s (GPS 6:20s)

Comment: that's a new PB for me at 5 miles, 20+ seconds better! This is a good way to recover (?!) -- Bill mentioned that his grandfather found similar, great short races right after a marathon. We did a 2 mile cooldown after, then went back to eat a lot and claim our division prizes (Pub gift cert.). Chatted to all sorts, including Rob L who was there just to support (he's got a marathon again next week). Also brief exchange with Sanjay, who was gracious in commending my run but who also said he'd done the course 2 mins quicker a couple of years ago. まあね、結局彼は a decade younger. Still, as the Tall one commented later, I can count this as proof of levelling up -- third PB this year, fourth in six months.