Clyde, Paul and I got up early in Phoenix and ran a few miles, I did about 5. Real easy pace, my legs felt good for the race. My biggest concern at that point was having enough juice to get through all three legs, since my base probably wasn't quite what it should have been. Then we rested for a few hours, got adjusted by the chiro, and drove out to Wickenburg. At 6 p.m. I led off after a short warm-up. The weather was about perfect, 65 or so with a bit of a tailwind. I felt a little pressure for a good leg since it'd be obvious where I left our team. Looking at the others at the start I figured Google would be the competition. I planned to start with the Google runner, see what his pace was over the first mile and then settle into something comfortable. He started strong and I stayed with him, ended up right on his shoulder until about the 2 mile mark. I heard his teammate call out 6:10 to him, which made me feel good since I didn't feel like I was pushing too hard at that point. He stretched out a lead on a short uphill climb right between 2 and 3 miles, and had about a minute lead on me then. I tried to keep a steady pace, and it helped that the course headed downhill just slightly for the next two miles or so. My only complaint was that the highway was pretty busy, I was hit with gusts from semi trucks a few times. But I didn't die or feel any need to back off, which was encouraging, and the pace ended up being around 6:02/mile for 5.4 miles, much faster than I anticipated I would run. I was winded, but ready for the other legs after a short cool down.
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