Marathon Runner through and through

So you know you are a true marathon runner when you run a 5k at only a slightly faster pace than your half-marathon/marathon. Yep, that was me today. After running the Platte River half-marathon two weeks ago, I ventured down to the 5k this weekend. I got up this morning at 5:00am to head to Boulder to race at the Boulder Distance Carnival. It was a great morning for a race with the sun shinning and a mild wind. I was pumped to start the race! The race started and I was feeling pretty good. As I came up on mile one I looked at my watch and was relieved and shocked all at the same time. Whoo, only 2miles to go-not 12 or 25.2- but man I'm running slow (6:20) I better pick it up. So, I start moving up passing a few people and ended up leading a small pack into the wind through mile 2. Sorry to those of you in that pack. I know there wasn't much to draft off of seeing as I'm only 5'2''. With about 800m to go, I was able to see this guy in red about 150m ahead of me and I started gunning for him. I had a flash back to college and imagined he was from Western State -GO Adams!- Anyhow, I made some ground on him going up a hill with about 300m to go but then he turned it on. My small marathon stride just couldn't keep up. I crossed the line and looked at my splits. Well, I ran pretty much even between 6:20 and 6:30 for 5k, just like a true marathon runner would. Although 5k was a bit of a stretch for me right now with my longer training and miles, it was a fun race to run. Boulder Running Company did a great job putting the race together and all the people there were very supportive in cheering for their fellow competitors as they came through the line. It was nice to pretend to be a 5k runner for the day, but I should probably stick to the half-marathon/marathon:)