me first Ras Na Heireann race.

I ran my first Ras Na Heireann race - and only my second race in my new 'home state'.  It turned out to be short and sweet.  My pre-race plans got snowed-on a little Friday - I was hoping to get my race packet and then just show-up a little before the race - but I ended up staying home Friday and never made it into Cambridge for packet pickup.  So today rolls around and I wasn't sure about parking near Davis sq., so I drove to my work near Alewife (~9:30) - biked over to the packet pickup (~9:50); then biked back (~10:15).  Then I did an easy warmup jog back over to Davis (~10:30).  Then I realized that I still had 1/2-our to kill so I stretched a lot.  

My goal with every 5k is to go out hard and hang on, and today was no different.  I clicked up the first mile just under 6:30 - kept it up for mile 2.  I thought I was giving back some time in mile 3; but I ended up a new PR 20:21 - a 6:34 min/mile pace - so I must've done better that last mile than it felt.  Great course.  The up-hill at the beginning is very gradual, mile two seemed mostly flat or downhill - maybe one or two little bumps. The finish was nice - you can kinda see it with a good 2 minutes left - so it keeps your brain from giving up on you.  Nice shirts and a finishers medal for everyone - which is nice since I finished 14th out about 220 40-49 year old men.  I think my days of hoping to finish in the top 3 got left behind in SE CT.