24 hours after the Neptune Festival 8k, I find myself on the start line of a 5k at The College of William & Mary. My wife and I are there to visit our daughter for “Parent’s Weekend” and the opportunity to race around campus is too good to turn down.
With legs still a little stiff and heavy from Saturday’s 8k, I didn’t really know what to expect from the 5k, but decided to go off at a good pace and try to hold on.
Bang on 8:30am the horn sounded to start the race, and the youthful college kids took off at an incredible pace. I held back a little but was still working hard and was a little surprised to record a 5:45 first mile.
I was even more surprised with the faster second mile (5:39), but running alongside one of the younger runners helped keep me going. I held on quite well for the third mile (5:48) and stayed strong in the home stretch to finish in 17:52 – an average pace of 5:42 for the 5k.
So, 2 races in 2 days, both of them solid efforts and I managed to come out of the weekend injury free and feeling quite motivated for Marine Corps.
For the record I finished 7th overall and I think I was first “old guy”! I’ll confirm this once the results have been published later in the week…