I didn't have a lot of expectations for this race. I knew the course was difficult and I also knew that I shouldn't push it too hard as I have a marathon next Sunday. On the other hand, I knew that by having only 33 miles on my legs, they were probably going to feel fresh and want to fly.

Once the gun went off, I found myself in a pack of about 10 guys. Within a 1/2 mile, 3 guys broke away leaving me in the chase pack following close behind. I believe I was in 7th place at the 1 mile mark. I slowly started to pick off the guys around me on the rolling hills leaving me in a spread out 4th as we hit 2 miles. The leader (our top guy at the HS last year) hit the 2 mile around 10:15 and I was a ways back in 10:47. I was content with 4th place and just kept on running my race. As we made a turn onto a gravel road, I could tell I was slowly gaining on the third place guy. This is the same guy that has won the last 2 races of the series. I passed him just as we made the next turn and slowly put some distance between us. Straight ahead was a giant hill and the guy in second place. When I got to the base, I put my head down, kept my same leg turnover and powered up the hill. I got to him right at the top and passed him around a turn as I slowly picked up the pace to gap him. Heading in to the final straight, I kept my eyes on the line and hammered it home. I didn't know until I crossed the line that he almost got me back. I crossed just ahead of him although they gave us the same finishing time. I believe this is the same person I passed at the end of the race 2 weeks ago.

Finished the race in 2nd place with my 3rd fastest 5k of 16:46

Splits: 5:22, 5:25, 5:30, 29
It's crazy to think that 2 years ago I ran this exact race (although it was run backwards) in 18:29