Pemi Youth 5k

Today Justin and I went up to Plymouth to hit up the Pemi Youth 5k. This is the final race in a 3 part 5k series that they have there. I thought this race would fit nicely into my calendar as one final hard effort before the marathon next weekend.

We got to the start area with plenty of time to register and get a thorough warm-up done. We did a couple miles with eventual race winner Lex Williams who is incredibly fast (I guess that is probably why he is a professional runner though!) After a few strides and dynamic drills it was time to get to business. The course was not easy, but it wasn't super hard either. I think that on a scale of 0-10, this would be a 5. There were a couple hills, but I found the hardest part to be the mile that was run on the rail trail. It was very loose and absorbed a lot of your energy. I tried to push hard through this section but the ground didn't give me anything back.

Anyway, once the race got underway I immediately noticed that I was in 8th. After a half mile I was up to fifth. The miles weren't marked well, but I was able to determine that I went through the first one in 5:25. Right at the mile you start your first of two hills. Then about a half mile later you make a 180 degree turn onto the soft trail. I passed one more guy at this point, and that was all the movement I would make; 4th right to the finish and one spot out of the money. I really felt like I was working hard on the trail, but when I hit the two-mile mark in 11:00 I knew that my chances of going sub-17 were gone. I couldn't muster the effort needed over the last mile and I finished in 17:19. Not a PR, but a good hard effort 8 days out from my marathon. Good enough. We shook our legs out with 3 more easy miles.