New 5 mile PB!

Today was the 26th running of the BRE 5 MILE anniversary run. And as the 25 or so starters lined up to run this circular route around bricket wood you could cut the tension with a knife! Ok well actually it wasnt quite like that. However my stomach always turns before this one. Without trying to sound bigheaded i was the supposed favourite having won it last year. However there were a few new faces so who knows! Anyway it was me against the watch. I set myself the goal of running a sub 30 minute 5 miler earlier in the year but since then my running has been more about building endurance not speed. In short i didnt feel i was getting faster. Anyway i set the early pace wanting to lose as many others as possible in the first mile so i could settle and run my own race. This worked and it was just me and one other colleague by a mile in (5:45 m/m). Dave stuck close to me over the next mile too and i began to think that i wouldn't be able to lose him. 3 miles in and i started to pull away and didnt want to lose the ground back so pushed on. It was at this point that i started paying more attention to the time again. Could i break 30 minutes!? My previous year time was 30:15 and i thought that at this pace i would get close. I felt in control despite the fact that i was clearly pushing as fast as i could. With a mile to go i knew barring a disaster that i had won but still wasnt sure if i would break 30. The final mile is a gradual uphill. Not what you want at this stage in the race. Despite this i pushed on through and coming ever closer saw that i could do it. I crossed the finish line in 29:37!! YES i had done it :-) retained the BRE Anniversary trophy for another year and got a bottle of pinot noir for my troubles. The wife will be happy!