Burbank 5K

The temperature was cold, the wind was howling and I decided to wear a jacket and gloves (no pants). When the wind was at my back or side, it felt overdressed, but not too bad. Despite my neurotic clothing issues, I still managed a 19:50 for 5K. 6:23, 6:29 and 6:58 for the last 1.1 (6:20 pace), for an overall 6:24 pace. 14th overall, but 9th in the 40-49 age group. Obviously, the quality in this division is tough, despite the race being won easily by 31 yr old, Jim Johnson (http://doublejrunning.blogspot.com). Right from the start, he was shot out of a cannon and the race wasn't in doubt after 100 yds.
I started a couple rows back in the pack and was about 25th during the 1st half mile. By mile 1, I had moved up to 20th and 15th by mile 2. Tracked down and passed one more guy with about 1/3 of a mile to go. I felt that I was mentally in the race the whole time, which led to the consistent splits. The guys I passed in the 2nd mile were due to the fact that once we hit the wind in that section, they seemed to almost go backwards.
Aside: Got beat by a jog stroller. That doesn't happen too often, but even fast guys have kids. I guess it was payback for the running I did when my girls were younger. I particularly remember a fall 5k that used the old North Andover 4th of July 5K course. I was pushing a double jogger and once I got over that 1st uphill mile, I was cruising. As I came up on one guy, he heard me coming, but did an incredulous double-take when he saw the wheel pull up beside him. He tried to surge, but I stayed with him and slowly passed him. Once I went passed, he was done. It was just into the 3rd mile, but I still put nearly 20 seconds on him.
Back to the Burbank race: well organized. They quickly went to the raffles as the crowd was anxious to get home. Despite moving the awards indoors, just knowing what was outside was definitely on people's minds. I missed much of the raffle time as I was doing a cool down and then went to cheer on the kid's fun run. Despite the weather, they had about 20 kids running that race and another half-dozen or so that did the full 5K. Luckily, there was a crew at the park putting up Christmas lights, so the kids had some spectators to cheer them on. Note to all you toher runners out there, please support the youngsters at these events. It only takes a few minutes to cheer the kids on as they run by and it means a lot to them. Prizes for the winners and age groups seemed to be decent. For the items in the control of the race organizers, they did them well. They couldn't control the weather nor could they do much about the police detail that kept waving cars onto the course rather than possibly moving them to the side or even occasionally stopping them. A few runners who had previously finished took on the challenge of traffic control and despite some occasional dirty looks or comments from the drivers, helped everything run smoothly.
More numbers: winner's time was 80.5% of mine; top 10 men averaged 92%; winning women's time was 104.54% and top 10 women were 113.34%; men's times were about normal for a larger race, which just means that the fast men showed up today. Women's times were more in line for a smaller local race.
Left hamstring and calf a little sore in the afternoon. Hope that clears up by tomorrow's run.