It took me a few days to recover from the gruelling Offerton 10K but eight days later my legs were ready for the next challenge - the Sale Sizzler 5K.
I have never raced a flat 5K before, or indeed any real 5K as parkruns have their own category according to thepowerof10 website. My parkrun PB was 19:22 so hopefully with a fair bit of training banked since then and the flat course a 19 minutes flat time was possible.
The evening was hot at 23 degrees C but this shouldn't matter too much in a 5K.
The race started with a loop of the track in Wythenshawe Park and as normal my club mates sped off into the distance. My target pace was 6:10 so after coming off the track at 6:00 pace I steadied things a bit and completed the first mile in 6:10 exactly.
The second mile started to feel painful but I managed to just about hang on for a 6:13. One of my club mates came back to me - he paid the price of a crazy first mile.
To go sub 19 I would have to speed up on the last mile but this was just not possible and the best I could manage was a 6:15. The last kilometre seemed to go on for ever as I was really clinging on now. There were some guys only a few metres ahead of me but it was all I could do just to keep up with them.
I was expecting to finish a lot slower than 19 minutes but I did speed up over the last 200 metres on the track and the Garmin had measured the course slightly short so I was pleasantly surprised to see 19:03 on my watch.
Last year I was targeting sub 20 over the 5K distance so I can't really complain about a 19:03 this year.
However there are two more Sale Sizzlers this summer and I think I will target a sub 19 on the last one. Hopefully with a month more speed work and a slightly cooler day it will be possible.
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