Sun, Nov 24, 2019 - 9K - 01:20:00
Sunday Afternoon Run with 5K-Timed-IKEA-Run (23:56)
Following a night of reminiscing and partying at the 25-year ELTABB anniversary at the Berlin Aquarium, plus consuming numerous wonderfully-tasting Guiness beers--I owe you one, Evan--while yelling over the noise in the Europa Center Irish Pub and then finally getting home around 2 AM, I didn't feel much like running today.  
 
But the weather was cool and dry, and the days are ticking down for my goal to get my 5K time under 24 minutes in November, so I donned my running clothes and took off. When I got to the IKEA starting line, I still didn't feel like running my lungs out for 5 kilometers, but once I sprinted off, I found myself hitting all my 24:00-pace marks: 30 seconds, 50 seconds, 2:00 tunnel, 3:00 Sachsendamm corner, 5:00 Priesterweg start, 6:00 trash can, 10:00 cement wall, and 16:00 left-turn to the bridge.  
 
My last 5K I remember getting into Chi-running-form around 4K, but during today's run I already had it about 1K. The Chi-running-form is the point where your lungs and legs get into sync so that your lungs are delivering enough oxygen to your body to lean forward and push off hard with your legs in order to get maximum speed. I kept that pace until the end and got just under the 24-minute-mark with a 23:56, finally after 16 winter-season 5Ks since August 17th.  
 
So, my next goal is to break into my top-ten 5K times, #10 being a 23:27. And if I can my 5K times down in the low 23s, I want to do some back-to-back 5Ks toward the goal of running a sub-four time in the Rotterdam Marathon in April. The goal is to run each 5K at a 28:00 pace, which calculates to a 03:56:17, a few minutes to spare for a sub-4-hour run. In the Seville Marathon in February, I was hitting each 5K at 30:00 all the way up to 30K, so a 28:00 seems doable if I can get my 5K times consistently low, I would say.