my makeup may be flaking

Really considered giving this one a miss. I've been worried about the state of my left leg for a while now. Dr says I'm probably ok to keep going to Ogden so I'm just going to limp to the finish.

Last race in the winter series. Before the race, I was 2nd overall (over 20 minutes behind Ben, meaning I needed to take a run at the 30k WR to beat him). I only had a 30 second lead on 3rd and about a 4 minute lead on 4th. I'd lost time to both guys in the half and so I knew I had my work cut out to stay in 2nd.

At the start of the race my leg actually felt fine. The biggest problem I was having was my heart, which even at a super relaxed pace was skipping. I ran with Ben, Noah and Mitchell (3rd place in series) for about half a mile and then dropped back as I clearly was working way too hard. Right at the mile (6:17), Mark Payne (4th place in series) caught me and we started running together. I stuck with him for the next 5 miles (6:35,12:35,6:31,6:23) but it was hard to stay with him. He eventually dropped me and caught Mitchell who had been running about 10 seconds ahead of us.

Next couple of miles I went to a dark place as I watched the two of them pull away (6:38,6:43). My pace was really pathetic, the pace that I would normally run on an easy training run, but I just couldn't get myself to move any faster. Mark had already opened up a 50 second gap on me and Mitchell was ~20 seconds ahead. Not good. We had a long way to go.

I picked it up a little in 9 (6:35), but then I had to stop to go the the bathroom at halfway, I think because of the painkillers. Mile 10 was 6:56 but that included a 41 second stop. When I got out I was now almost 1 minute back from Mitchell and about 90 seconds back from Mark. Mark wouldn't gain anymore time on me the rest of the way.

6:15,6:19 for 11 and 12 which are downhill, we're now running the striders half course which makes the landscape more familiar. 6:27 for Mile 13 and all of a sudden I've caught up to Mitchell. Another 6:27 for mile 14, but now I'm starting to feel lousy. 6:43,6:33,6:48,6:43 then 4:19 for the last .64. Not a very strong finish but I keep the same distance to Mark (who only beats me by 90seconds) and I ended up beating Mitchell by 3 minutes. This meant that I held on to second in the circuit.

Second straight inexplicably bad race (Striders was explicable, I think). I have been a little gimpy, but it didn't feel like that slowed me down and the relative rest in training shouldn't hurt me this much. I still think I can run sub 2:50 at Ogden, but I don't think it's a given like I did 2 months ago.