Firefighters Five Miler Recap

This morning's Firefighter's Five Miler was awesome. This is one of the best races I've run so far this year. I loved the course. The weather was beautiful, the crowd was small,the port-a-potties were plentiful, and the packet pick up was very well organized.
The course tends to follow the same path every year (per a fellow runner, as I'd never run the race before) and it tends to draw the same crowd year after year. It followed part of the Spirit of St. Louis Marathon course, so part of it did have a lovely little 1/2 mile gradual hill, and then there was a steep climb of about 700 feet in the fourth mile. Gotta love the Garmin for giving me these fun little details. I felt like I was running slow, but then I looked at my watch, and realized that I was really flying. That was a nice surprise.
I ran the five miles in 42:17 which works out to a 8:24 pace overall. I had two miles that were just barely over 8:00 minute miles though. Coincidently, these two miles were the miles with the big hill and the gradual hill.
All in all, it was a great morning. I was finished running, home, showered, and sitting down to breakfast by 9:15 this morning. I love that feeling of accomplishment and knowing that you've done more before 10:00am than some people do all day!