On saturday morning I ran the East Ave Grocery Run in downtown Rochester. I finished the race in 54:58 which felt good, but was well behind my pace from last year.
Coming into the race with an injured foot and not enough sleep my expectations were not too high. It was a cold and rainy day and I made the mistake of starting too far back in the corral. I had to fight crowds all the way to the 5k turn around 1.8 miles into the race.
Once I had room, I opened up the pace a little bit and felt solid running through the middle miles along the river. Perhaps I should have pushed myself even more as I had enough left to go faster for the final mile to the finish.
My next race will be the Dirt Cheap Stage Race next weekend at Mendon Ponds.