Lackluster 5K

Ran my first evening 5K tonight. Although I clocked one of my slower times, I feel like I learned some things about myself.I clocked in at 22:54 on the out-and-back course on Allen Parkway. Jonathan graciously let me use his Garmin so I should be getting all kinds of feedback on my run. Having so much information available on-demand seems like a double-edged sword. I found that having the constant ability to see how I was doing both deflating and encouraging ... at different times.After last night's workout, I didn't expect to pop off a PR. I felt tight pretty much throughout the day. I was also concerned about the evening heat and humidity. The weather wasn't a problem. The start time was actually delayed for lightning as light, intermittent rain passed through. There was a surprising amount of heat radiating from the road along the course. I noticed it through the first half but not so much during the return leg.Hoping to save energy for later in the race, I was really trying to reign in my typical fast start. That was really my sole focus. I was hopeful of running the race like a fast tempo run ... negative splits would even be nice if I was feeling good. Well, that effort led to a 6:52 first mile. I think I was around 14:08 at the second mile. If I've got it right (the Garmin data dump will confirm later) that yields splits of:1.0M 6:522.0M 7:163.1M 8:47So much for negative splits!From this, it seems to me that without realizing it I have already been doing what the Runners World article suggested. Going out fast in order to get better 5K times.Even with a slower start tonight, the falloff in my splits is consistent with the falloff I usually have with a faster start. So I think for me, going out fast then gutting it out is probably the approach to achieve better times. (This also seems consistent with my 10K result [i.e., my 10K was slower than the time "equivalent" charts suggest I should be able to run given my 5K times].) Of course, tonight's effort could be tainted by last night's workout. But I think this is my tentative conclusion until my overall conditioning improves markedly.I'll summarize the Garmin details when I have them later.

Okay, here are the 1/4 mile splits from the race:
0.25 1:39
0.50 1:42
0.75 1:42
1.00 1:44
1.25 1:45
1.50 1:55
1.75 1:51
2.00 1:47
2.25 1:54
2.50 1:54
2.75 1:56
3.00 1:50
3.10 1:10

So even though I started at a moderate pace ... I really slowed down from the 2 mile mark to 2 3/4. I don't know what it means ... should I slow down more at the beginning to save strength and energy for the end or will that just result in a slower time overall? I'm still searching for the key ....