Gate River Run 5k....Er, 15k

~2 mile w/u + strides
Race: 5:59, 6:04, 6:00 (5k~18:50); dropped @~3.5
3.5 mile jog back to start
Total: 9 miles
Post-race: 2-3 mile walk back to hotel

Well. I'm going to be brief with this so as not to dwell on the negative...it's not good for my chi. Anyway, the legit reason why I bailed on this race was my left hamstring. It's no state secret that it's chronically tight, but today it was bothersome to the point of seriously altering my stride. I've gone over it in my mind as to why today would be different than other days and I'm not entirely sure. Perhaps I was dehydrated? It's much more humid here than anywhere else I've been recently, so that might have something to do with it. Combined with my constant traveling as of late, that might be the culprit. Honestly though, I have no idea. I just know that by 5k I was certain things weren't feeling as they should and I faced the decision to 1) continue on, hope it worked itself out, possibly cause more damage; or 2) drop out, wog back to the start, be upset/embarrassed that I didn't finish. Sounds like a lose/lose situation but I went with #2. Sigh.

On the one hand, I'm extremely disappointed in how things played out today, but on the other hand the goal remains unchanged. This was just intended as a tune-up for the first Stanford in two weeks, and I still have my sights on attaining the auto qualifying time in the 10k there. I need to try not to let this race affect me psychologically, continue to build my fitness for the next week, and be extra vigilant about stretching/massaging my hamstring.

Oh, and just as an aside, I would've absolutely gotten rolled had I continued the race anyway. There were some sick times out there today. Props to all the studs who finished in the money.