Won it by 14 seconds. Raced pretty well but I think I could have gone harder. I had some tough training rides earlier in the week in which I really was crushed by the altitude, and this led me to be a little conservative. I think I’m starting to recover a little from being at altitude though, today is day 6 at 6000 ft. I felt pretty strong today and could have maybe pushed a few more watts.
But mostly it was well executed- very smooth power, pushed hard where I strategically intended to push hard, took a microrest where I intended to take a microrest, no technical glitches. I felt really well prepared, not really confident that I’d win it but confident that I was in a place where I could do as well as I was capable of. It wound up being my fastest ever 5K. Sweet.
I was pretty nervous going in, I had put a lot of eggs in this one basket this year. Today’s 5k and tomorrow’s 10k are my only real race goals for the year. Getting that gold medal today takes a lot of pressure off, whatever happens happens tomorrow.
Super nice to have coach here. Settled the nerves a little bit. He showed up at my start with some pearls of advice as to how to race the course (he’d raced earlier than me). I saw my 30 sec woman out there ahead of me, trying to do what he said. I still caught her though.
This is my first NSG and it’s a really nice venue and vibe. Kids at the start giving you fist bumps and wishing you well, announcer and start folks thanking you for coming and obviously trying to put you at ease.
