virtual race report: fall five miler

It's time for another virtual race hosted by RunningLaur, the Fall Five Miler!

I didn't "pre-register" since I wasn't sure where today's run would take me. I'm a mentor in a 10K class that meets on Tuesdays. I usually run with the class, but sometimes I end up helping along the course. But it all worked out!

The class ran almost three miles today. I found a couple ladies doing a good pace and ran with them most of the way. I turned back a little bit to make my Garmin hit 3.1 miles -- I wanted to at least finish 5K!

After a quick Gatorade break, I joined a fellow mentor to get at least another mile. We didn't have much time because it was getting dark (no lights on the trail!), but by the time we started about turning back, we were almost at a mile. We pushed it until my Garmin beeped, and turned back to finish my five miles.

The first three were with the class, so I wasn't really racing. After all, I was trying to stick with our class members!

1. 9:22
2. 9:52
3. 9:46

The last two miles are a different story. My friend is quite a bit faster than me. For the first mile, I think she was taking it easy. But we ran into another (fast) friend on the way back who joined us the last half mile. They pulled away; at one point my Garmin said the pace was 7:45. I can't do that! I tried, but couldn't keep up. Still, that last mile is faster than my 5K race pace!

4. 8:51
5. 8:26 

Total time: 46:17, average 9:16/mile.

Hooray for fall!