I went in to this race with medium expectations and I pretty much hit what I thought. My goals were: A 3:15, B 3:20, and C Under 3:30. It was about 45 at the start and in the lower 60's when we finished. When we were in the sun it felt a little warm, but not too bad. I started off around a 7:00 pace and held that until we made the turn at mile 8. I knew I was pushing a bit so I dialed it back until the half, wanting to handle the hill after 14 well because uphills still aggravate my bone spur. I hit the half around 1:35. The hill was not too bad, I took it easy and managed an 8:01 on mile 15. I then settled back in to a 7:30ish pace wanting to do well in the canyon. I got a stupid cramp under my right ribcage around 17 and felt it all the way down the canyon. My best mile down the canyon was 7:19. And then I just ran out of gas the last 3 miles... Still not where I need to be.
By my watch I was on 3:15 pace, but my watch had the course at 26.4 instead of 26.2 so I was off a minute and a half. It didn't help that I ran the last 3 miles at 8:00-8:10 and watched my 3:15 bleed away... On the plus side, I am happy since this is better than I have done in over a year and with some more work maybe I can start scaring 3:00 by the end of the season...
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