It was a perfect morning for a race, nice temp's in the 50's and no wind.
I new coming into the race I wasn't as prepared as prior years and my hammy-itis could act up. But I was hopeful.
I started out the race and felt good. I didn't have the speed but I was glad to be in a race, no stomach aches or any aches. After about a mile the pack started to separate a bit. I was running in 4th place. After two miles I was still in 4th but the guy in 3rd wasn't getting further ahead anymore. I ended up moving into 3rd place after mile 4 on the big down hill section. I could still see 1st and 2nd place on the longer stretches but they still seemed to be pushing out futher from me. So my hopes were a possible a 3rd place finish.
At about mile 7 I heard footsteps coming up way to fast. Apparently, the best runner in the race had started 2 minutes late because he was in the bathroom. He passed me with no problem and then went on to win it. So I reset my thought process in hopes of 4th place. With 5 miles left my hammy-itis came back but I just did my best to ignore the pain. Miles 10 to 11 are uphill and out of the blue my quad started to tighten up and would have cramped up but I walked for about 45 seconds. Then the 5th place guy caught me and I ran with him for a bit but then was worried my leg would cramp again so I let him slowly creep ahead.
With one mile left my hammy was hurting but my leg wasn't cramping so I closed the 50 yard gap and with just under a half mile I took back 4th place and pushed hard.
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