Really good, fun race for me today. Last year I ran this race and finished in 1:24:23, so almost a minute faster. I like this race. It seems to be a pretty honest course with a lot of rollers and a couple of good uphills. Nothing like what I'm use to down here. Splits: 5:52, 6:07, 6:27, 6:30, 6:11, 6:12, 6:22, 6:56, 6:47, 6:23, 6:12, 6:17, 6:14, 0:50. I got a little feel for how things go with Jake, Fritz, Allie, and all the other really fast people because I was actually racing for placement today as opposed to just racing the clock. It was fun and I was glad all the really fast people were running the full or stayed away. Right from the start the tall guy, gray shirt guy, and Rob M. are all ahead of me. With me is one other guy with sunglasses, but he would fall back on the uphill stretches and I eventually would pull away for a bit (he came back though). Rob was in my sights up through about mile 6 or 7 and I watched him pass the gray shirt guy, who seemed to be coming back to me as well. I eventually caught and passed him around mile 7 or so. I got into a pretty good groove those first few miles and was feeling good up until around 8 or 9. I eventually start walking through the aid stations and right after the big hill that goes under the freeway (around mile 9) the sunglasses guy catches me. Now it's a race for 3rd (Rob is long gone and he's obviously not coming back). I don't know what to do in these situations cause I've never been here before. This guy really saved my race cause he and I began to clip along shoulder to shoulder for the next bit and I started feeling better. Around 10.5 I gapped the guy a bit. I wasn't sure if I should do this or not, but I was feeling good. Now I'm running scared cause I'm sure he's just ready to pounce on me if I slow even a bit. At this point in time we are battling the 5k people, which I actually enjoyed. It was nice to have people all along the way and I generally didn't have to do much swerving. Every so often, the 5k people or some spectators would cheer me along and moments later I would hear them cheer for the guy right behind me. I want to look to see where he is, but just figure I will keep running scared. With about .75 left we make a left turn and I got a look back and see I've got about a 4-5 second lead. One more left hand turn and I glance back and the distance is about the same. Now it's just a long straight away for the last .25 or so. I thought for sure this guy was going to come flying by me, but he never does and I eventually finish about 7 seconds ahead of him. He really did push me to a lot faster time. He mentioned that when he saw me stop at the aid stations he thought he get by me eventually. Waited around for my bro. who finished just under 1:30:00 and then waited around a bit for the awards, but decided we would rather get home rather than keep waiting and waiting. I'm really happy with this race. The fact that I ran this a minute slower last year, and was able to run TOU last year just under three hours gives me some confidence that perhaps this year I can run several minutes under three at STG. And my legs feel pretty good right now since I didn't run straight down a mountain like I usually do for my half marathons.
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