PR! Kind of. New course, but the intro miles were stronger than last year so I am calling it. Besides, I beat it by over 1:30 so it has to be. I hope they keep this course, it's much better than the normal one.
I started out feeling super strong so I didn't want to get held back by the normal front guys - I ran a 4:30 pace for about .3 until the body checked in at a high level then I backed off for the real race. Fritz and Justin passed me, followed closely by green shirt guy. I kept them in sight until about mile 3 or so, then they really took off. Except green shirt was coming back to me! The strong feeling was still there as I felt like a machine running down the cool canyon. Finally about mile 5 I caught him and passed him. But he just would not stay passed! Surge after surge failed to dislodge him. I could tell he was putting in more effort than me but it didn't seem to matter, he was just willing to keep going into the back bedrooms of the house of pain. Finally he got creamed on the hill going into Mapleton but still managed to hold on for another mile. My corner surges took their toll and as we passed the Junior High school I was finally able to break away. Incredible defense, hats off. Now I was in 3rd and paranoid that I might not stay there so I went to redline and held (except that stretch from 1200 to 1600 that I know and hate so well) and managed to come through with a nice gap on 4th. Podium, woohoo! I am really liking these PRs. I looked around for Fritz and Justin but they were offon the warmdown so I got a massage, ate breakfast, showered, and came back for awards which Ihad to grab early since I hada guy working a grader in SF that I had to get to.
Splits 5:21,5:35, 5:42, 5:45, 5:31, 5:45, 5:48, 6:00, 6:02, 6:18, 6:05, 5:59, 5:58
| 