Before I get to how I did, I need to mention how this race did: fantastic. I've never seen a better organized event for that many people. (Of course, I've never run with 55,000 others either.) Weather was t-stormy the night for the expo but cleared up Sunday morning and we had a clear, crisp morning. No problems parking or getting bathrooms/a mile warm-up/starting place in our flight. Well-marked course, bands throughout (better than a Rock 'N Roll marathon, by the way, though leaned a little heavy on church worship bands. They must cancel church on Bloomsday in Spokane). People cheering all over the course, which is great. And a great finish area for the second seed runners: massage, complimentary photos, donuts, coffee, pizza, ice cream, beer tent, water, and uh, over in a corner a table of bananas. We indulged. Now to the actual running part. Like I said, we were in the second seed group, right behind the elites, and jostled our way into a fair spot. Not at the back, but probably not quite as close as I would have liked. A lot of dodging and weaving through 600m or so. I lost Mike steps out of the gate because of the crowd but apparently he tracked me pretty well through mile 1, just seven seconds behind. I missed the marker so wasn't sure what I was doing, but I figured it would be quick. So I tried not to get overzealous. There was some wind, but it hadn't felt like much so far. Still, you never know if that will hit.
Mile 2 has a long downhill so again, I aimed to run a good pace but not kill myself. Hit the marker in 11:25, so I had two sub-6s under my belt, just as planned. (They were most likely 5:45 and 5:40, based on where Mike was.) Headed up the first hill without too much trouble, held my ground and came off the uphill with momentum. Aimed to keep the pace even there at 6, and did — 6:04. I was through 3 still feeling very strong and light, so I knew I had a good race going. There's another quick hill you hit there, but no problems, and another fast mile getting pulled along with a little group — 5:54. I knew Doomsday was around the corner at that marker, and everyone had been talking it up as pretty devastating. I'm pretty confident on the hills this year, so I was looking forward to it after a fast mile. Even if I lost time, I was on a good pace. There's a decent descent heading toward Doomsday where you are watching it, which is kind of intimidating. I tucked in with two other guys and we kind of did a little shuffle at the base of the hill. We worked up together, and crested with some momentum. It's a steep hill, but not as long as I feared. And I did feel pretty strong heading, nailed a 6:13. At that point I knew sub-45 was possible. I was still with the two guys from the hill, and we battled it in together for another good mile, 6:08. Maybe a little slow in retrospect, but the hill zaps you a bit and I wanted something left for mile six. There were a lot of packs pulling up on us through the neighborhoods, so as each would go by I'd pull a little bit more. I focused on that 45 mark, kept doing the mental math, and hit 7 in 5:55 as we cruised by a Black Crowes cover band (my favorite of the day, outside the bucket drummers, I love those). There's a long straightaway there before a 90-degree turn toward the chute. The guy we stayed with, Donny (Mike's brother-in-law) had warned me about it. He said at that turn you're there, so start the engine early. I took off at maybe 150m before the turn (where the band was playing 'The Final Countdown,' another nice music boost), hoping Donny hadn't underestimated. I left the guy I had been pacing with, snuck passed a group of four youngsters (20-24 age group) before the turn and cruised down, holding them off. It was the best kick I've had in a long time (it is downhill), I was really pepped up and passed one guy (and almost a second, needed three more steps or so). The clock time was 44:20, but my watch says 44:10 because of the delay at the start. I'm not sure why the official results are the clock rather than chip, weird. But no matter, I was almost a minute faster than the goal time, really enjoyed every step of it and felt light and strong, and was really, really impressed with the race overall. Mike was two minutes back of me and Henry was around 49 minutes, and we did another mile cool down after hooking up past the finish. After spending an hour or so in the second seed aid tent, it started to cloud up and cool off, so we went back to Donny's and cleaned up, then he brought out the "nacho table." This might have been the real highlight of the day. He put a plastic table cloth down on the dining room table, then dumped nacho fixings in piles all over the table. Then dumped chips all over the place and you just built nachos right in front of you, pigging out with your hands. What a great idea. Then we drove home, and it was uneventful.
supernova glide -- 100
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