Well first off I would like to thank Walter and Scott and Matt and Zak and Jacob and maybe Brandon and Sasha and a few others for not showing up today. Much appreciated :)
I got to the start and didn't see anybody fast. Bill confirmed it, no fast guys. Looks like my day! I still wanted to try for the course record though to mess with Walter. The race went off and so did I, everyone dropped back quickly. I could still hear people talking after mile 1 (4:59, +3 from last year) though so I did not slack off. Right after mile 1 the course takes the big dive and I just laid out and relaxed, but not too much. I couldn't hear anybody by the end of mile 2 (5:01, +2) so I figured I would drop back a little and see if I could have something left for the rollers in 12. So mile 3 was easier (5:11, +7) but then I just needed to be sure I was running away with it so I looked over my shoulder.
Crap! Somebody's back there, maybe 20 seconds. I better start pushing it. But no matter how hard I pushed it (4:56, +0) (5:10, -1) arrgh (5:03, -5) crap (5:10, -4) good grief (5:15, -6) are you serious, he just stayed right there at +20, nothing I could do. We were getting into the flat part of the course which is my weak point so I figured I would get #$@% second again. Fortunately my body was smarter than my mind and did not quit running (5:23, +1) (5:28, -2) and so I was able to get back in the saddle mentally and cruise across the open space and up the first hill (5:38, -9) with great enthusiasm.
But then I was dead with two miles to go and I didn't even have the energy to check in back of me. All I could do was just keep it redlined and hope for the best. Turned out that I still had something for the rollers (5:47, -8) and even the last mile (5:43, -1) and when I turned the corner for the last stretch he was no longer in view so I could finally stumble up the road in peace. Unfortunately I got +21 doing that and I ended up with only a 2 second PR, should have pushed more. But I really gave it all I had, I think I just didn't run the tangents as well this year so I really only lost 4 or 5 seconds slowing down temporarily.
Then I turned around to see how close it was and Craig (Green) was almost a full minute behind! He must have fallen apart in the rollers worse than I thought I did. It was twice as cool because he beat me at Timp in masters so now I get my #5 ranking back :)
5k was 15:39 (+9) and 10k was 31:26 (+7)
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