A Mixed Bag

I really felt the effects from this week's mileage increase.  Thursday's six miler left me with heel pain that lasted until I woke up Saturday morning for my 5k race.  I knew the race wasn't going to be easy during my warm up.  My legs felt really sluggish.  Anyway, I had planned on running negative splits, but I think I went out too fast.  There were no mile markers along the course, so I didn't really know how far along I was.  I figured I would run the first mile and then check my time to see if I was going too fast.  It sure felt fast.  I ended up trying to guess where I was, and ended up just grinding it out.  There was some wind and long inclines that didn't help me any.  My unofficial time was 24:48.   

I have mixed feelings about these results.  Based on Thursday's run, I had figured that 25:00 would have been the best I could hope for.  I'm happy that I beat the 25:00, and I'm happy that my feet didn't cause me any problems.  Because of the lack of mile markers, I don't know if I went out too fast, or if it just felt like it because of my dead legs.  I hate not knowing.  The race was for a good cause.  The local food bank was empty, and because of 400 runners, they were able to fill it with 2500 lbs. of food.  I guess there really isn't much to be dissatisfied with.  My irrational brain is telling me that I should have finished in 22-23 minutes, even accounting for the added mileage and the fact that this was the culmination of week three of the comeback.  I guess it was okay for my first 5k race in 22 years.