Though still not 100% fit, most of all because of some "niggles", but with some 10k style training done over the past weeks today another race to see where I am at at the moment. Today I was at least feeling good enough to arrive early at the race start and do a reasonable warm up before entering my start area. I no longer am in the first group, what means starting well back from the start line since this is a very popular race and also both a 5k and 10k mixed at the start. At 9 am we slowly start to move and the first kilometer is very slow, eventhough still at 4m50 pace, which I thought would be my goal pace, but in the second kilometer I easily went slighty under 4m30 and up to 5k without too much effort I could maintain that pace and passed the halfway point in 23m14s. My watch was measuring the kilometers slightly shorter so I never was really sure about my real pace and just trying to manage my effort to have some reserve for the last kilometers that go somewhat uphill on the Av. Paral.lel. It is still very crowded and the pace is never completely regular because of groups that block the progress and it will would continue like that up to the finish line. Without going into a full sprint mode I picked up the pace slightly in the last kilometer and finished in 46m08. Much faster than expected and without any suspicious aches or pains. In another 2 weeks a somewhat longer event, and continuing with training for 10k, with some speed and some endurance workouts.
