Woke up at 4am to get breakfast and allow time for the rest of my body to wake up. I actually jogged about 2.5 miles from my house to the bus pickup point to save my wife from having to wake up. Also did about a half mile of warm up 20 minutes before race start. This went much like last weekend's race. I was very controlled and relaxed on the downhill portion that takes the first 3ish miles. Then I put in a little more power as the course leveled out and left a couple of guys I was mostly staying side by side with. The rest of the race was a great feeling of reeling in rabbit after rabbit. There were some badly marked turns on this race. The worst one actually cut off a significant chunk of the race if you missed it. So I actually passed several people multiple times. I was pretty happy at the end, as I'm pretty sure I didn't lose to anyone because of the badly marked turn. This course was way longer than 13.1 last year and I'm pretty sure it was still a little longer this year too (about 0.2 miles). A lot of people at the finish line were upset about the course being longer, a lot of people accidentally cutting the course short, etc. Overall, it was a great experience for me. I'm always happy with being able to do a race. Even if turns are missed or others intentionally or unintentionally make the course shorter, races are still so filled with adrenaline for me, and then with such positive emotions when crossing the finish line! The website for this race said there would be a kids fun run after the half. Apparently that is no longer the case. Ellie had gotten super excited about doing her own race after mine, so we did our own little race together, where I put my medal on her neck at the end. She really enjoyed that :) As far as how I feel now, I feel really really good! Even a few hours after the race, I feel like I could run back to the start line. I probably couldn't, but seriously I feel super good. | 