IAFE 5k

This race, if you want to call it that, I do every year at the International Association of Fairs and Expos trade show that my work exhibits in Las Vegas. This race consists of 10-15 people doing a 1 mile walk and 5-10 people doing the 5k. The people that do the run are the people you would typically see starting in the back of a regular 5k race. Last year I won this race so I was back to defend my title. Haha. There is one guy that beat me the first year I did it, I beat him last year and this year...he won. I just did not have it again. I looked up the elevation differences: Des Moines 900ft, Las Vegas 2,000ft. That slight difference I can really feel when I am running. This year I ran 2 miles before the race even started because they don't warm up. Well, they do, you run down the hall of the conference space and group stretch. Not enough for someone looking to get out and get moving right away. The course is around Bally's. Some areas are scary because we are running through the drop off/pick up area and the service parking lot where there are lots of trucks. All 7 of us lined up to go. Dudes #1 and #2 appear to be a father and son pair and they take off first. Last year Dude #1 took off way to fast and so I was not worried about him being in front of me. Dude #3, the winner, follows close behind those 2. I knew I was going to have to keep him in my sights, but I was not wanting to start out that fast. So I was 5th, with Dude #4 in front of me. He was a bit older and wasn't to worried about him. We do 3 laps. Lap number one - I passed Dude #4 at about a half mile. Dude #3 gets into first after about 3/4 mile. I could see dudes #1 and #2 losing their form so I knew they had started to fast and I would soon catch them. I passed Dude #1 at about .9 miles. I passed Dude #2 just after mile one. Now I was feeling tired but did not know why. I think it has to be the elevation changed because I felt the exact same way last year. After about 1.25 miles, Dude #3 was almost a 1/4 mile ahead of me so I had to pick up the pace. I couldn't I tried, but I think my effort to go 10 seconds faster/mile was so much more work than just running at my pace. after 2 miles he was way to far ahead of me to catch him so I just tried to finish strong. We had dominated everyone else by a good 5 min. I really noticed my long training has hurt my short fast races. I need to get some speed work going. I did run the next 2 days as well for a total of about 15 miles for 3 days. My foot started hurting on the last day so I took Wednesday off and Thursday was my travel day back so I did not workout. I am thinking I will sit on the trainer tonight. I don't want to injure my foot again, especially now when there is no need to push myself. I have moved my kickoff starting day from January to December because I eat to much and need to get back into working out. I don't think I am going to go full blown into triathlon training. I am going to try to do some different stuff so I am not getting burnt out.