Christmas 5k o 5k navideÑo

Christmas 5k 5 km 00:22 04:28 pace
Today was my 5k race, my first race since gatorade 10k on May 8th, which I trained very hard for that race, after that had to deal with shin splints problems, then reduced my running and the shin splints went away. After that my consistency suffered, I still ran , but only around 20 miles per week and no speedworkous, about 5 weeks ago, I decided to increase my mileage and try to come back to my previous mileage, did not have enough time to get to my previous shape (21 something for 5k), but I am increasing my mileage , last week was around 32 miles, my good performance mileage us above 40 miles, so I am getting back into it.
Woke up at 5:45 a.m. , the race started at 7:05 a.m., at 6:35 a.m. I left my house and started running to warm up with my brother to the race, warmed up around 3k including 4 strides, then called it enough, walked a bit and lined up.
My goal for this race was to run sub 22.30, I was doubting it since I ran 2 kms a bit faster than that pace a week ago, and the breathing was labored, but I would try my best. I race without a watch and race by effort and pay attention to competition instead of time, the time is the result of my competition and my effort.
The gun went off and I went out a bit conservative, a lot of people passing me , but I passed some people as well, after the 1st km, I said , ok! time to start the race, I tried to pick up the pace and passed some people, but I did not have enough speed,since I was running head to head with another runner and I felt good cardiovasculary, but suddenly the guy was around 4 steps ahead and I could do nothing to catch him back, just before the 2k mark I passed an old guy who beated me last year by 1 second, I passed him ¨easy¨, the half way point arrive and I feel a bit tired but under control, I thought that I could maintain the pace for the second half, but that did not happen, since I did not have a watch, I could tell that I was slowing down, because more than 15 people passed me in that second half. The interesting thing that happened in that second half was that with 1 mile to go I was running head to head with a guy that I did not know, I tried to surge but he responded very well to my surges, the old guy that I had passed ëasy¨in the first half passed me back fast, then I tried to maintain contact but he opened a bit, I tried to help myself with the guy that I was running with, we kept running together till the 200m to go mark, I said to the guy, lets passed that old guy , come on!! I sprinted, the old guy looked back and tried to accelerate, I was running very fast, left the guy that I was running with, passed the old guy, and passed another guy, wanted to slow down but I was running very fast and did not want to lose that momentum, I thought that I was running over 23 mins, a lot of people passed me in that second half, I saw the clock ticking 22:12, and I said I got my goal, the last time that I saw the clock was 22:20, then was very tired and put the hands over the knees. After a while the guy that was running with me for much of the last half of the race, he introduced , we shooked hands, and congratulated me for my fast finish.
I feel good, I got my goal timewise but competition wise I got passed by a lot of people and that piss me off a bit, oh well, I am getting back to my previous mileage weeks, so no worries. Merry christmas to all of you !! what a big rambling:D