Super Summer 8k Race

Today was the Super Summer 8. This is an 8k race that I've run a couple of times before. It's a flat course and I've done well there in the past. Today my goal was to do the race in under 36 minutes which would be a new P R. The morning was warm but cloudy. There were storms in the area and lightening all around but not in the immediate area. There was talk of delaying the race, but it went off on time. I had set my Garmin to keep me on pace. I started and as usual there was no problem holding pace in the beginning. In fact I was a little ahead, so I eased up just a bit. There were a couple of people ahead of me that I hoped to beat but I didn't worry, it was still early. At the halfway point I was still on pace and feeling pretty good, but starting to worry about holding on. I passed the people I wanted but one of them was stalking me, I could hear him breathing hard behind me. I was OK with that, because I wasn't breathing nearly as hard as he was. I made the turn for the last K and grabbed for water but missed. I trucked it on in and could see the clock from afar, 35:30. All I had to do was hold pace and I'd reach my goal. I crossed the finish in 35:54, a new P R for me. I was as tired as I've ever been after a race and feeling great that I had reached my goal. I left one guy that likes to stalk me and pass me at the end. I made a point to put a lot of distance between us before we got close so that he couldn't do that.
My training had made me think I would be able to P R at this race. On Monday I did an easy 6 miles. Tuesday, I did 10 x 400's at a 6:45 pace. Wednesday, I did 5 miles on trails running with a couple of ladies from the Trail Running Club. And Thursday I did a marathon pace tempo run of 5 miles x 8:30. While the intervals and tempo runs were difficult, I was able to complete them as scheduled.
It will be a short week, and then I'll run another 8k on the 4th. I don't know if I'll race this one as hard, we'll see.