OK that was fun. There was a huge crowd at this one, I showed up early and barely got legal parking. Cops would have had a heyday. We all started off, lots of us at my traditional 4:55 uphill pace. I got passed horribly on the uphills, and returned the favor on the downhills and flats. It felt like my legs turned to giant springs after each hill and I was able to maintain 6:10. But I had to walk three or four times on the hills. By the top I was in 8th, but downhill monster mode was definitely available and once I hit the road I was hot on the trail of Melody. An immediate pass and I slammed it to 4:10 pace, and the leaders started to come back. Except the guys that had already crossed the finish line of course :) Clark put up a valiant defense but I was in rare form and passed him about halfway back to the finish line. Even on the flat I was never slower than 4:40, and on the final turn I passed Hunter and pushed even a little harder, dropping back to 4 flat as we crossed the finish line. Even so he almost caught me! Last 1K was a new record, 2:48. Splits were 7:44, 8:01, 5:30, 4:08 for the last .1.
|