So after the debacle that was the Hot Chocolate 15K, I was excited to get that bad taste out of my mouth so I was ready to jump into my first Atlanta Track Club race of the year, the Heart and Soles 5k in Decatur. Well needless to say things went much smoother than the last race, so I am happy to say there will be no complaining from me in this entry.
Maybe it had to do with the great marketing done by the ATC lately, but damn there were a lot more people than last year's race. The race, itself was split up into 3 waves which were grouped by predicted times. Group A was for the 25 minutes and under crowd, group B for the 30 and under crowd, and group C for the rest of the field. Talked into it by my homeboy Charley, the guy in the picture with me, we ran in group A. Charley finished in a very respectable 29:57, which is not bad considering the guy doesn't have time to train accordingly and also ran on a bum knee, but Charley is good at inspiring me, so I followed suit.
Feeling pretty good beforehand, I came quick out of the blocks and within a few hundred feet my legs started to get a little heavy. I think for the most part that was my fault for not warming up properly, but after about a mile or so I started feeling pretty good, so I began to pick up my pace as well as I could without burning myself out. I think one thing that some runners can be guilty of is not doing enough hill work, because it seems like a lot of people that I pass are on hills. Now I understand that some runners may want to take easy routes with slight incline, but a great way to building leg strength is to run on hills. Well fortunately this race featured a downhill finish so I hit my kick (perhaps a little sooner than I should have) and finished pretty strong albeit a little out of gas towards the end.
So I finished in 25:02 officially, 17 seconds slower than last year, but I was at least able to enjoy the race and be satisfied with my performance. Well on to the next race, Spring Has Sprung 8k/15k and I'm a little unsure as to which race to run, but I am kind of leaning towards the 15k to get prepared for the Georgia Half Marathon next month. Well happy running and thanks for reading.
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