Sat 3/15 - AM 65 minutes incl. 5k road race

The beat goes on with race results that can charitably be described as mediocre. As usual, there are extenuating circumstances, this time the ongoing battle with whatever cold or colds I've been suffering through since returning from Arizona nearly three weeks ago. Went to bed last night with an ominous achy, almost febrile feeling. Prepared to do the unthinkable and bag the race entirely if I woke up in full blown fever but that didn't happen. Still, plenty of congestion and a not quite productive cough, really the pits. Knew full well while warming up that this race would suck and I would do well to finish within a minute of last year's time. As it turns out this is exactly where I ended up. Effort wise it felt like a reasonable race effort, not unduly taxing but also not as easy as this pace should ever feel. With dramatically increased prize money over last year's race I stood zero chance whatsoever of repeating last year's high finish, which was itself an inexplicable fluke. Thus the only competitive focus was beating the other old farts, and looking around at the start no one seemed to be a threat. Fell back immediately and inexorably from the lead group upon the gun firing, it seemed like dozens of people strung out ahead of me. After a few minutes it became clear I wouldn't be likely to catch many of them later on either. With no pace sense to speak of I figured I might hit the mile in something close to six minutes, instead it was 5:30. This qualified as good news in the current climate of diminished fitness and expectations. The second half of the course was into the wind to a much greater extent, second mile around 5:40 and I was expecting slower. From there it was playing out the string. Right leg felt reasonably good warming up but stiffened predictably afterward. Cooldown was a very easy putter that took place a good 90 minutes after crossing the finish line, but worth the wait as I had to collect my ill-gotten loot. Weather was somewhat dismal while warming up but improved dramatically just before the gun went off.