As I was leaving for the race I had the feeling that I was forgetting something. Thought that as long as I had shoes, shorts and singlet I was fine. As I pulled up to the bus pickup I realized that it was my watch that I forgot. Oh well, what are you going to do. I also realized that I didn't have a bag for the clothing drop. I rummaged through my car and found my daughter's Hannah Montana back pack so at least I had something to put my clothes in (I'm sure I looked real cool). I ran 1/2 mile before getting on the bus just to see how my legs felt. After being dropped off at the starting line I ran 2 more miles with Cody, Jon, Logan and Clyde. Met a lot of other bloggers at the start (Clay, Kim, Tom, Jossee). I knew Tom and I were planning on running a similar pace so I was hoping to stay close to him so I could get mile splits. First mile was in 6:00 and second mile was 6:13 (I think). At this point my hamstring started to flare up and Tom started to pull away. He was gaining about 2 seconds per mile on me. After mile 5, Tom had a 14 second lead on me but I was starting to make up a little ground on him. I think that I caught up to him somewhere around mile 7. He said we were averaging 6:14/mile at that point. This is also where the course gets ugly. The downhill turned into rolling hills and we now had a pretty good headwind. The headwind continued from here to the end of the race and was a real factor. It also seemed to get colder at this point. I wished that I would have kept the long sleeve shirt on. My hamstring was getting worse and the taylor's bunion on my right foot was really bothering me. I considered just backing off the pace and coasting in but decided to just keep plugging along until the end. I was caught in no-mans land for the last half of the race which made the wind that much more difficult. Ended up finishing in 1:24:10 (or something close to that). Not too far off of a PR but considering the course and conditions, it was a PR effort. There were times that I felt I could have pushed harder but there were also times that I felt really spent. I guess that means that it was a good effort. It was cool to see the huge group of bloggers cooling down. I opted not to join them since my leg and foot were causing me grief and I have a marathon next week. | 