Half Marathon race at 8am this morning in Bloomington, IN. Hitched a ride with a couple Quaff guys from Columbus - always enjoyable company with those two. Got to packet pickup/ race start line roughly an hour prior. Cold and windy day - conditions less than ideal. We jogged some WU - about 2 miles - and dropped off the heavy clothes at the truck. The race is part of NIRCA events every year, so there's a ton of college guys in running clubs (not scholarship or anything, but, still pretty solid) toeing the line. Hilly course, with some strong winds along northern stretches of course. I quickly see my place in this crowd as I am about 50th after a downhill first half mile at 5:40 pace. I feel every bit of the suffering shown in the last 5k's splits - I pulled back a little bit as the tough rolling portion of the final 2 miles started.
Hilly Course shown in splits: 604, 547, 614, 613, 542, 604, 555, 549, 619, 617, 615, 627, 628, 603
Passed through 10 mi. in about 60:20, but, really struggled with the last 5k.
1:20:19 for 43rd place. The funny thing is that this was also 2nd in 30-39 AG Most of the guys in front were NIRCA/college kids.
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