I feel good about today. I managed to stay with Tom and Nathan for the first half of the race as planned. Then as expected they both pulled away and it wasn't long before I could no longer see them ahead. I saw Rich Lamoreaux ahead of us for most of the first half of the race, but he pulled away with Nathan and Tom.
I did manage to hang on to Hal Amos who I saw in front of me for the rest of the race, but I couldn't close the gap. I had barely beaten him in the last few races we've run together and I think he was sick of it. I talked to him after the race and he was worried about me getting him. I was worried about Josse getting me. She finished just behind me again, but said she was closing and would have had me in another mile. I don't doubt that. She said in the marathon she's going to get me. I don't doubt that either...but I do hope to make her earn it. My plan was to run the start of the race this year about the same as last year but hopefully hang on better the second half. As it turns out, I did finish about a minute faster than last year, but I didn't run the second half faster. (It's hard to tell since the mile markers didn't match my Garmin very well.)
Here are the splits for this year and last year. I was using the Garmin miles until mile 7, when I switched to manually pressing the lap reset at the mile markers because they weren't matching the Garmin very well.
|
Mile
| 2008
| 2007
| 2008
| 1
| 6:19 | 6:37 | 1.0
| 2
| 6:15 | 6:20 | 1.0
| 3
| 6:17
| 6:17
| 1.0
| 4
| 6:17
| 6:17
| 1.0
| 5
| 6:31
| 6:28
| 1.0
| 6
| 6:28
| 6:20
| 1.0
| 7
| 6:17
| 6:33
| 0.93
| 8
| 6:04
| 6:30
| 0.92
| 9
| 6:45
| 6:44
| 0.98
| 10
| 7:03
| 6:59
| 0.99
| 11
| 7:05
| 7:14
| 0.97
| 12
| 7:13
| 7:10
| 1.0
| 13
| 7:02
| 6:53
| 1.0
| .1
| 0:40
| 0:41
| 0.1
| 13.1
| 1:26:14
| 1:27:02
| 12.88
|
I think the best part of the day was seeing so many running friends and having all of them do well. The best part of running for me is the lifestyle and social interactions, and today was a great day.
| 