I wasn't sure whether to run this race or not. I haven't run the last two weeks and my knee is still not fully healed. But I figured I could just suffer through it and get some circuit points out of it. I told Ben that I didn't think I could go faster than 34:00. I seem to lose fitness really fast when I miss two weeks like this. So, the goal was just to get a decent place and score the circuit points.
Immediately after the start Ken Richardson, Nate Hornock, Ben Van Beekum, and Albert Wint formed a pack and they were running 5:12-ish pace. I knew that wasn't sustainable for me with my lack of fitness so I let them go and hung back in fifth place for a bit.
I started gaining a bit on the lead group just after mile 2 and passed Albert and soon after Ben around 2.5 miles in. I was about 4 seconds or so back from Ken and Nate but the breathing got really heavy and I slowed quite a bit. They actually sped up from that point on and soon were well out of reach.
My knee felt great until about 4.5 miles in and then it started to ache and hurt. I put up with the pain for the last bit and finished up in 3rd place in 34:03.
I opted against a cooldown since the knee was aching and I didn't want to get it any more inflamed.
Splits 5:21, 5:16, 5:29, 5:32, 5:33, 5:33 (1:19 for last .24)
Hopefully by the end of next week this knee pain will be a thing of the past and I can try to get back into decent shape again. For the circumstances this race was fine, but it's still frustrating to run a flat 10k 15 seconds slower per mile than some half marathons I did in the spring. | 
