AM- 3 trail races in 3 weeks, 3 wins. I guess that's a streak, though it won't continue at Shut In run or TNF San Fran 50. Today was the last race of the Greenville Track Club corporate series, the GE 6k held at Conastee State park. Did a nice warm up and felt like absolute garbage- legs were tired and sluggish. I figured I'd still run hard, though, and see what happened. I've learned I can never outrun my endurance at these short races, so I just start as fast as I can and then let my legs hold on the rest of the way. Temps were nice- low 50's and breezy. The race started with a little loop of the parking lot before diving onto twisty, rooty, fun trails for a mile. First mile was pretty quick, 5:46, and I was in the lead with GE runner Philippe and a teenager 4 seconds back. Mile 2 was mainly on bike trail and was 5:52, and I had built about a 15 second lead on Phil. Mile 3 was back on enjoyable, undulating trails, including some raised wooden portions over swamp/mud and some sand and passed in 5:58. The last .69 mile was mainly uphill. Finished 3.69 mile course in 21:58, winning by 20-30 seconds or so. Legs felt fine during the race and I enjoyed stretching them out on some dirt. This is a good race, well run with a fun course and 300 competitors and 400 ft climbing. The prizes are unique, too- GE CFL light bulbs. I won 6 for 1st overall and 3 more for 1st team overall. They also do door prizes of lots of gift cards, pumpkins, etc. Cooled down with Phil and Scott by sweeping the course, picking up all the course markings, mile markers, cones, etc. I've never run with a cone before. Total for the day was 13 miles. I plan to try to sleep more and continue recovering while getting back to normal mileage (90-100+) for 5 weeks of training before San Fran.
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