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Penney Farms 5K - Penney Farms, FL

October 31, 2015 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: actually nice: 55-70F, not terribly humid

Comments:
CA's mom alerted her to this race: a small 5K road race in Penney Farms, FL - a small retirement community started by "James Cash Penney", who founded JC Penney's! The race is around the grounds of this old retirement "town"! My '15 goal has been to do more of these races, so I thought it'd eb a good, fun workout!

Got some coffee and nut butter, then headed to Penney Farms. It was mercifully cool - like a normal 55-60F and moderate humidity. CA and I warmed up about 2.5 mi, some strides, then assembled at the start line.

Very small field with not a ton of competition, but a handful of fast-looking HS kids. One that stood next to me on the line asked me, "What do you do a 5K, in?" My reply: "I haven't done one of these in like TEN years!"

And with that, and a loud-ass cannon gun shot, and we were off.

The course was pancake flat, with a fair amount of turns, but several lonnng, flat straightaways. Straight about 400m, then right to a long half-mile straight-away into this wooded neighborhood. The "kid" next to me got out HARD and within a kilo, had a good 100m on me, with a few guys in between us.

Around the block, along a short stretch of dirt road, and we headed back toward the start. First mile: 5:34, not bad. I felt REALLY good, but I knew this was going to be a shock. By mile one I'd gradually worked into 3rd and then 2nd just after a mile.

Heading east, we rolled more into town: right, then left, then left, then right past the downtown and post office, then around another block. The turns were slow, but I worked to keep pace. The Kid was still ahead, but I gradually closed.

On the "backstretch", we hit two miles (5:32). I could definitely feel it and knew this would hurt, but goddamnit, he was coming back to me, so I had to push. We hit the "opening loop" again on the west side of "town", and I knew I'd catch him. The question was, how much would he fight?

We rounded the corner, hit the dirt road, and I pulled even. "Nice job, sir!" he said - very kind, but an obvious sign of weakness, "lols"!

So I pushed hard around the corner, off the dirt and onto the 800m penultimate straightaway. I tried to make a surge to "put it away", and it seemed to work. And from there, I was form-focusd, in particular to be sure I was:

- using my R foot well
- staying forward and arched
- pawing

Ran around the final corner and into the finish, with a fairly hard push. The clock was over 17 by then, and I crossed at 17:16 for the W. The Kid - a junior at the nearby HS, just done with the CC season - was 2nd in 17:23.

A couple minutes later, CA came through, winning the women's side in 19:4x. She ran "not as hard" for sure and, slow cadence notwithstanding, looked great over the last 600m when I ran back to cheer.

Post-run: easy 2.5 miles around Penney Farms with CA for cooldown.

PM: had breakfast with CA's uncle, then cleaned up and headed to Jacksonville with CA's dad and his friend for the Florida-Georgia football game. That was a unique "SEC football" experience! Beautifully perfect weather and a great win for the GatorZ!

mile 1 - 5:34 (166)
mile 2 - 5:32 (180)
mile 3 - 5:24 (184)
(0.16 ~: 0:45)
--- 17:13 (AHR 177)