We were a little worried about the weather as we got closer to the weekend, but race conditions turned out to be almost perfect. It was cool and a bit breezy at the start, but a short warm-up with my daughter, Amelia, took care of the slight discomfort. Chatted with Lyle and with Larry and his wife for a few minutes. Didn't really see anyone else that I knew. Last year I ran the whole race with my daughter (as she liked to go out kind of fast, but didn't really have much endurance), but this year I just told her to run her race and I'd try to keep her in sight. I was really hoping I wouldn't see her in the later miles because that would mean she was still struggling with endurance at longer than 5K distance. It turns out I didn't have anything to worry about. We worked our way closer to the front and took off at a pretty good pace when the race started. I saw Amelia weaving through traffic for a few seconds and then lost sight of her. I saw her about 100 yards ahead a couple of minutes later and then one last time as the road made a big turn. I ran a faster pace than most training runs, but still felt pretty relaxed. The first mile split was pretty close to 7:00, but I wasn't wearing a watch so I'm not sure. I fell into a comfortable pace (one I knew I could hold) and enjoyed the time through the canyon and past the first water stop. I didn't really need a drink of water, but I stopped briefly anyway just for a quick break. After passing the three mile mark I started feeling a little discomfort on the slight uphills, but recovered quickly when the course would turn downhill again. I'm pretty sure that mile was my slowest. I started to pick up the pace after the mile 4 marker, passing some and getting passed by others. I didn't really see anyone that was obviously in my age group. I was starting to feel the strain after the five mile mark, but I was able to keep pushing to the end. I was a bit disappointed to see that I was in the 48 minute range, but based on my training, that was actually a pretty good result. I saw my wife and daughters as I stopped at the water table and learned that Amelia had finished in just over 42:00. That was a big improvement over last year and about a minute a mile faster than I had run. That made my day. She was first in her age group and the sixth female over all. I finished second in my AG, so not a bad day for this early in the year. I think we can both bring out times down a bit with some consistent training this spring.
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