After picking up my number, I ran a lap around the 2-lap course to warm up, but kept the pace light since I had already warmed up on the way over. My legs, schoolwork, and life in general combined to keep me from doing much training this week, so my legs felt reasonably good at the race start. As we lined up, I kept my race goals in the front of my mind: don't go out too hard, ignore the competition and push hard in the last mile to hit 16 flat.
As we rounded the gentle curve to the first mile marker, I was situated in 6th place and cruised through in 5:03. This was just a touch faster than I wanted, but definitely slower than my start at Shamrocks. By this point, first, second and third places were all far enough up the road that I didn't have much hope of catching them, but fourth and fifth were right ahead of me. I had planned on not racing against other people... but they were close to me and going at the right pace, so I picked up the pace just a fraction and bridged up to fifth place.
As I caught on, I felt my competitor pick up the pace a bit, so I went with him, not wanting to give up the place I had just earned. We caught up to the fourth place runner (Mike) and went by him, only to see him surge ahead seconds later. By this point, my competitive fire was thoroughly stoked, and I decided to see how solid of a tactical race I could run. This race had a five-deep cash purse, so I figured if I could hold on, I might be able to outkick someone and win some money. We hit the two mile mark right as we started lapping the walkers, and Mike surged again, hoping to break one or both of us. As I went with him, I felt our companion drop off the pace a little bit, a sure sign that he wasn't able to hang with us.
When we hit the starting line for the second time, with about half a mile to go until the finish, Mike surged a third time, and this was the surge that really worried me. For a few moments, I wasn't sure I would be able to follow, but he wasn't able to keep up the surge pace, and I reeled him in and made my pass with about 400 meters to go. We hit the only 90-degree turn on the course, and from there, the course took a gentle turn towards the finish line. The third mile marker was in sight, so I gunned it, not sure how much kick Mike had in him. It turned out that he was spent from surging, and could only limit his losses. A quick check over my shoulder confirmed I would hold onto fourth place, so I cruised in the last 50 meters, having already watched the clock tick past 16:00.
I was a little disappointed that I wasn't able to run sub-16, but for being tired and stressed out, I feel like today was a pretty good effort. The prize money is a nice bonus, but certainly the biggest reward on the day was having run a very smart tactical race, where I was able to respond to competitors better than I would have expected before the race start. This gives me a little boost of confidence going into next weekend's Dooby Du Duathlon in Ohio, my first multisport race of the season.