I slept fairly well before the race, but I woke up coughing again and went and slept on the couch so as not to disturb Laureen. I ended up having to take some medicine as I'd get too congested when I tried to lay down in a semi-reclining position. I was dragging a bit to eat and get out of the house, but started to feel a lot better on the ride down. I picked up my number and got on the bus sometime around 5:45. On the way up I sat next to a guy from Wyoming that was running his first half marathon. His dad (Gary Killpack, who is in my AG) has been running for a long time so he pretty much knew what to expect.
After walking up from the bus dropoff I was happy to run into Paul, Tom and Nathan. That's the fun part about any race -- seeing your buddies. I warmed up with Paul by running further up the road and then we saw Darin Cable just before the start. The race started close to 7:30 and I felt a little better than expected once we got underway. I had a few sharp pains in my left ankle that didn't really develop into anything. I averaged close to 7:00 minute pace on the downhill sections and more around 7:45 on the uphill sections. I never felt that tired during the race, but couldn't have run it much faster than I did. Kerry Steadman passed me around mile 9, but I just couldn't go after him today. He beat me by a couple of minutes. Even though I was slower this year, I somehow managed to finish in the top 100 men and got a medal for it. I was third place in my age group, but was unable to stay for the awards as I needed to get home and coach my daughter's soccer team. Paul, Tom, Nathan and Darin all did really well. | 