Time: 55:00
Distance: 9 mi.
Goal: Finish in the top 3, run under 15:00
Race: 4th in 14:58*; mile splits: 4:40, 4:47, 5:00?
Joe and I headed down to UT San Antonio for the Diploma Dash 5k. The main appeal was decent 3-deep prize money. I saw that last year it had gone about 15 flat, so I figured it would be worth a shot. I am hoping to race more regularly, so this fit with that as well.
It became clear fairly quickly that there were five guys seriously in it and (by the mile) that it was going to get strung out. Westly Keating led it from the get-go and never looked back. Joe led and tried to fight off Klbet Cherop but couldn't overcome his kick in the final straight. I felt a bit over my head coming through the mile in 4:40 (which I was) so I settled in 5th for most of the race. In the last half mile I was able to track down and outkick Derek Yorek, which gave me some satisfaction given that the race was far more competitive than we were expecting. It was deceptively humid given that the temperature was pretty mild.
1 Keating, Westly 465 14:02.1 14:02.1 4:31 1 1 Pharr TX
2 Cherop, Klbet 891 14:26.5 14:26.9 4:39 2 2
3 Thorne, Joe 752 14:27.2 14:27.2 4:39 3 3 Austin TX
4 Washburn, Owen 797 14:56.0 14:56.0 4:48 4 4 Austin TX
5 Yorek, Derek 887 15:01.2 15:01.2 4:50 5 5
Check the race site for full results and more information.
I was going to run a shakeout in the afternoon, but ended up playing a few hours of volleyball instead. It was a fair trade.
*I am listed at 14:56 in the results, but this picture shows that is clearly not true. They messed up the results and I think took my guess of "14:56-14:58" right after the race to put in a time.
