Time was lame but I am happy about the race--when I saw the trees bowing in the wind I knew that this was not a fast race kind of day, so decided to try and run a tactical race and maybe, just maybe, make top 3. The race was two loops of the same route which on a non-blustery today was an awesome course and I think potentially very fast. The south wind was 21mph gusting to 30mph and it blew you off the road if you were standing still. Fortunately the finish was with the tailwind! I jogged slow with Eddy 2.5 miles and then we went and hung out at the starting line jogging and place and bouncing around, the usual. I hung back 4 or 5 rows and was immediately intimidated by the large group of skinny women with six packs. I started off comfortable in the first mile and worked my way into a nice rythm going north and then whipped to the south part. I just tried to stay relaxed and comfortable and keep my turnover high rather than try to outstride the wind. I tucked in behind people, even slowing the pace to draft rather than waste energy fighting the wind solo. We turned north again and ran past the start for loop two and I was comfortable and feeling very good with such a conservative start, so while I still had the wind at my back I stepped it up and started passing people. When we turned south into the wind again I had the 3rd place girl in view. I caught up to her, drafted briefly, then surged ahead and caught the next guy. I ended up slowing the pace to draft again and not fight the wind alone and was a little nervous about the girl I had passed so as soon as we popped out of the headwind and ran in the crosswind before turning north I took off. I had lots of gas in the tank and just floored it all the way to the finish. I passed a few people and never got caught by the girl. It was nice to feel that good and ready to crank at the end of a race. In some ways I kind of dogged this race because I felt awesome afterward and still feel good but I ran it purely as a tactical race rather than running for time so it was really a different way of running a race. Second place was only about 45 seconds ahead so I wonder if I had fought the wind and pushed it, maybe I would've caught her but in my experience wind will suck the life out of you. Turkey Trot 10-miler in two weeks and I am eager to run hard and PR!
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