Was excited to run this race again this year since it was such a special race to me last year when unexpectedly I PR'd, won the race and then went on to run a long trail run all in the same morning. There were a lot more runners this year so I knew there would be much less chance of winning it.
I felt great for this race but there were a few mishaps. The course was
measured correctly but I did not run it correctly so my distance was
about 0.2 miles too far. Since the course starts out almost immediately going downhill, I decided I would go out as fast as I could and then hang on.
First mile felt great at 5:47. At the start
of the second mile my shoelace had come untied, so I stopped to tie it.
Started catching back up but then had to slow down for an ambulance
that had to cross, got going again and still managed a 6:13 for the
second mile. I was starting to gain on the tail end of the lead pack.
Feeling pretty good and then I heard someone say something to me. I was
pretty sure that I (and the three people I was behind) missed a turn.
Got back on course and caught up to some people who did not miss the
turn. Third mile was 6:09, but then still had another 0.31 to go. Just
missed coming in under 20:00. Not quite my day for racing but I felt
great about the effort and had a lot of fun.
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