This race was a mess.
I drove up to Mobile this morning and got situated with the elite coordinator, who was kind enough to let me in the group. Noticed there were only 3 Kenyan men present when usually there are 5. Money is 5 deep, so the door was open for me.
I started at the lead of the chase pack with the goal of running the first 4 slightly slower than what I think I can do, and then hammering the last 2 miles. Top 3 Kenyans were long gone, and the top 2 Kenyan women were running hard about 10 seconds ahead. By 3 miles I was pulling away from my pack when a race official directed the 2 women and my pack off course. I didn't realize it until mile 4 when we turned back against the flow of 10k runners coming the other way. That was a real punch in the gut. I had 10 seconds on the chase pack at that point, I knew the runners behind me, and I knew I had 4th place locked up.
I caught up with the 2 women and found our way back to the course. 5.3 miles on the watch when we passed the 4-mile marker. I couldn't stomach dropping out, and gutted it out to the end. Ended up with 7.5 miles at the finish. Good news is I set an unofficial 12k PR (38:37). Bad news is I lost out on $500 in prize money. 4th place was worth $750 to me ($500 + $250 for top American), and the race director awarded me $250 as consolation money. Considering they really weren't obligated to do anything, I should feel totally okay with that. But it leaves a pretty raw taste in my mouth. Made worse because they duplicated 1st & 2nd place money for the 2 elite women.
Anyway. Splits were 5:08, 5:09, 5:08, 5:07, 5:11, 5:10, 5:11, 2:33.
The big takeaway is my fitness is coming around. I think I would have finished 31:45-31:50 without the deviation. 3 months to Grandmas. 5 weeks to Indy. I'm the healthiest I've been in awhile, and everything seems to be clicking.
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