Tour de Patrick, Guinness Celtic 5K, Worcester: Official time 31:43. Only a minute and change above my 5K PR, which is fine considering I wasn't really aiming to beat it. I've been going into all 3 races in this series with two goals in mind: (1) Keep the overall pace under 11 min/mi, and (2) Do better with each successive race. So far that's been no problem.

The race overall was better than last week's Pawtucket 5K: more people, better crowd support, nicer scenery, the route made more sense, and the course was easier to take -- mostly flat with some rolling inclines and declines, not enough to call them hills. I had a tough go of it last week, but this time was much different. Ran smoothly and easily, breathed well, and took no breaks. Didn't stop at the water stations because I didn't need any, so I ran past those. Chugged up the inclines passing many of the people around me, which felt good. Was able to adjust my pace well, slowing a tiny bit when I needed to recover and speeding up when I recovered again.

The weather started out cloudy and cold, but after the turnaround the sun came out and it warmed up. During the last mile, I saw 3 guys riding pennyfarthing bikes -- wish I'd gotten a picture, but I was in motion at the time. Overall, I'm very pleased and hope to beat this time by at least a few seconds on Saturday in Providence.

Splits:
1- 10:17
2- 10:28
3- 10:26
last li'l bit: 9:20