Furthest HF Contact To Date

Had some time this weekend to play around with a 40meter dipole I made out of an old extension cord.  Put it up about 7 feet off the ground between two trees and hooked up my 5 watt Yaesu FT 817ND and LDG Z100 automatic antenna tuner.  Ran the whole show off a 12 volt battery a guy gave me out of an old X ray machine on the tailgate of the pickup.  Conditions were good in the afternoon on Saturday and did some NVIS.  There was a contest going on so a lot of guys were trying to make as many contacts as they could for their logs.  Got a guy up near San Francisco and another down by San Diego.  Both are at about 300 miles from my location in central California.  Went out a little later to listen some more to 40.  After the sun went down things really got heated up.  Guys were all over 40 trying to make contacts.  Made three contacts and went inside to look them up on QRZ.  Two guys were in Washington which was great.  Only five watts and a little home brew dipole barely off the ground and I was getting just under 1000 miles away.  I looked up one call sign and nearly fell out of my chair.  Hesston, Kansas was the location nearly 1500 miles away!  Now I'm sure these guys wouldn't have taken the time to answer me had it not been a contest due to the low power.  I'm surprised the guy in Kansas could even hear me.  Maybe if the antenna was up higher but it was a neat test.This contest thing sounded like a lot of fun.  Any of you guys into contesting and can share how it works.  I'm pretty unfamiliar with contests and how one goes about getting started.