Woke up @3am wide awake. My body has been screaming for the past few days to race. Makes no sense because my back and neck have been screaming in another manner that is really frustrating. My right side really left me wondering if I was pushing for a long term injury with a race today. I decided I would make my goal 1:20 instead of 1:18. Toni was really cool to watch the boys while I ran. He suffered a calf injury and had to back out last second. Toni is a great runner and amazing at being able to run, work and be a dad/husband. I think the dude will sleep when he is dead. :) Toni was really cool and took Scott, Mike, myself and my friend's daughter Sadie up to the start. I did a two mile WU around the camp grounds. I felt good so decided to race. Atmosphere was great. Temps low 40's. You could tell carnage was about to be laid. Just wasn't going to be me. I knew I wanted to stay around 5:50 to 6:10 pace the whole time and just be consistent. This is literally the first race that I used my garmin correctly. I thought the first mile split read 5:38(acutual 5:58). This played with my head. I just knew I needed to keep a consistent pace to reach sub 1:20. I felt really good throughout the entire canyon. My legs actually wanted to keep pace. I got to mile 6 and was still on target. Breathing was good. Legs felt great. Splits were on. I had mentioned to Curtis and Tristam that it would be cool to see them on the course. To my surprise they met me at mile 7. Man they were great. I seriously had a blast running with them(they looked like they were jogging :) I looked at my watch. 6:10 pace. Good. I am still in tack. When I got to mile 8, I started to feel my glute medius feel sharp pain. Not a good sign. Then I soon after my right trap and rhomboid are now tightening as well. I am in trouble. There is nothing I can really do but try and relax through this. At 9.5, I saw my pace was 6:40. This was very discouraging. Curtis and Tris were fantastic. They were continually giving me advice and tatics even though I was falling off pace. From 9 to the finish, I tried to throw in surges and at times thought I was going to get back on pace. I would last about 10 seconds and then feel the tightness hammer me. Very frustrating, but I knew I needed to finish strong. I wanted to quit at 9 and 11. I really cannot understand this injury. I am going to continue to get massage and PT. I know my training was inconsistent the last month, but I know I could have done 1:18 today and this injury held me back. Look forward to the next opportunity. Glad my boys could watch mom and dad run today. Always a good time. At least in my opinion. :) I am pretty excited to report that I did not break my back or neck during this "workout". I am pretty disappointed with my results. Splits were as followed. 5:58, 5:53, 6:13, 5:54, 5:59, 6:03, 6:13, 6:13, 6:25(back and neck are now very tight, 6:32, 6:42, 6:26, 6:26 and .39 seconds for last .13( good kick actually was ready to be done) See everyone at AF Canyon unless I take on a 5K in between. Time to get this back and neck healthy... | 