A Balance, Redefined

Overall a good day. I was a little tired last night from the week of family festivities and still trying to get some work and running in. My plan for today’s race was to hang on with whomever up to the top and after the turnaround run until I break. Chad, Josh S., and BJ were all at the start along with a cohort of others so I was hoping that I could stay with Chad to the top. I was expecting some of the high schoolers to take off at the lead but everyone was a little calm. Josh and BJ took the lead early on with Chad and I in the chase pack. Going up city creek was not as painful as I was expecting and it was great to have Chad there to work off of. My breathing was heavier than I would have liked but my legs felt relatively fine. Josh and BJ put a pretty good lead on us and with the curving road we lost sight of them before the turn around so I was very happy to see them coming back down. When Chad and I hit the cone, Chad made one surge and I followed his lead. I had just been hanging on until that point but with the downhill I got a second wind and went for it. The crowds were good and though the road was a little cramped I didn’t have too much problem weaving around the other runners. I made a very slight misturn going into Memory Grove. This actually worked to my advantage, I took a second to look at my Garmin and see there was only about a half mile to go and I saw how close Chad was too me and that really got the fires burning. My final time by Garmin was 21:07 at 3.85 mi Avg. 5:30. Chad had about 3.9 mi. BJ finished in 20:01 and Josh was about 20:34. Chad was a very close 4^th, I’m not sure on his time. Overall a great day and I’m happy with my performance.