The goal today was to break every record I could, including Walter's course record, my mile, my 5K, my 10K, and my half. Unfortunately they changed the course, eliminating the first .52 miles of downhill and replacing it with .52 miles of flat at the end, for a total time penalty of 31 seconds. This would make it much more challenging. I had also tried to get Walter to come down and race me, sort of as a superpacer, but he would not take the bait. It didn't end up mattering though. The start came and I saw Craig, who I beat last year, there as well as a few other fit-looking guys. As the gun went off I engaged my first-mile-is-free superpower to try for a new record, but alas I only got a 4:52. Still feeling good though and well out front I settled in to what I hoped would stay a sub 5 pace for a long time. Second mile was 5:05, drat! Third mile was 5 flat though and I had high hopes for the 4th mile which is the most downhill, but it came in at 4:55. OK, I was probably not going to get a course record even with the correction but I could hear people coming up on me fast, which was a real shock! In mile 4 I got passed by Craig Green and Jeff Olsen, and passed quickly. I bet they did mile 4 in 4:40. As he passed Craig said "Nice, I see you are saving something until the end." Dude! Are you serious? You are blasting me at my top speed and you think I am holding back? Crap he is fast. Well, he pulled ever so slowly ahead in each succeeding mile but I still held out hopes to nuke him in the flats like last year. I did get my 5K record though at 15:25 and things were looking good for the 10 K as well. But it was not to be, missed it by 10 seconds at 31:20 because even though mile 5 was a solid 5:06, mile 6 was a 5:18. In mile 7 I was catching the rubber burning twins but I had to stop and tie my shoe, arg. Even with that it was still a 5:17 so that was pretty good but they had gained quite a bit of distance anyway. Then things started to flatten out with miles 8-10 at 5:27, 5:23, and 5:35 through the big field. But Jeff was coming back to me! I passed him with authority in the middle of the flat part in the fields, but Craig was maintaining a solid eighth of a mile out front and things were looking grim. Into the rollers we went, last chance to grab him. Even with the last three miles at 5:45, 5:46, and 5:49, I was unable to overtake and he beat me by 50 seconds. But I got 1:09:17, which was a new PR by 21 seconds for this course given the 31 second correction!
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