Woke up and drank some water and had a bite of energy granola stuff then headed up to the starting line. Warmed up a quick mile then made my way to the front for the start.
miles 1-3: Abel and I wanted to control the pace for the first few miles at 5:40 but ocationaly on the downhill parts droped to 5:35 but no biggie. We started around the second pack with the first pack of 5-10 people with Ben VanBeekum going around 5:30 pace. Going through the first three miles as the pace set and people figured out where they were going Abel and I passed a few and were in 5th and 6th place.
miles 4-5: These are the miles going into hells canyon and out on to the road. Abel and I let the rolling hills cary us and the pace was more around 5:30 average because we let ourselfs go on the steepe downhills. It was a good quick thing to get our legs moving. We caught up to this Tri-guy doing the half as a training run. We chatted for a while and as he told us he wanted to stick with us he fell off pace and Abel and I were in 4th-5th place keeping a 5:40 ish pace through the canyon, slowing a tad coming out on to the washington dam road.
miles 6-9: Going up washington dam road we caught up to the next guy and he stuck with us for the next 3 or 4 miles or so. Going up the hill we were around 5:50 and for a tiny bit 6:00 on the steepest part. This was where I finaly started working hard to keep the pace. Going down the hill we went back to 5:30 pace and the guy we were with was trying to gap us... but little did he know Abel and I are kind of a big deal. We one time saved the world from aliens with our mind bullets, but thats a different story. We turned off the dam road and started heading up washington fields road. That one guy passed us on the hill and gapped us a little bit but on the way down we tried to catch him again.
miles 10-11: Majestic Hill... awww snap. They changed the course this year and you actually go all the way up and over the hill which was killer. I was really struggling up it and dropped to like 6:15 pace as Abel stuck around 6:00 pace with that one guy (who we caught towards the end of mile 9). After the top and on the way down I was feeling good and tried to pick up the pace to catch Abel and that one guy. I got down to 5:35- 5:40 pace but my stomach was giving me a hard time going any faster and I didnt really want to stop to barf. So I kept going alon at around 5:40 pace untill the last couple miles.
miles 12-13.1: Coach ran back to us from the 5k he did and helped pace Abel and give him a strategy to beat that other guy then droped back to help me, I was 30-50 seconds behind them at this point. We turned off the downhill, headed up the road some more and then turned around for the final mile. Holt splashed water in my face then dropped back to help the other teammates and I finnished just under 5:40 pace with a 1:15:41.
The race felt pretty good, like a quality tempo. The last 3 miles were really tough like they should have been. My time was 5 seconds slower than last year but like I said they changed the course quite a bit, the course was a tad bit longer than 13.1 and my average pace was about 5 seconds faster per mile than last year so I definantly think if I did the same course as last year I would be in the mid 14's. Im happy with the race and effort.
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