Not a great morning for a race...60 degrees, 100% humidity, and breezy.windy conditions. Fortunately it was a twisting turning course so we were never heading into the wind for too long, and in a strange way it helped as it kept us cool. I never do well in these conditions, so I decided to focus on staying calm and relaxed, running by feel, and not worrying about the time. This really helped me. What also helped is that I ran much of the race with "Ivi" who is a bit of a local celebrity on the running scene. She is as tough as nails, and can lock in a pace like nobody else I know. Ivi and I ran side-by-side for the first 8 miles. I then found myself about 50-100 yards in front of her for the next 8 miles. I think I pulled away on a slight incline, and kept thinking she'd catch me up. Well she came past me at mile 16. We ran together for just under a mile, and then she started to pull away. For a few moments I started to panic and think I'm going to crash and burn. However, I managed to remind myself that I was so close to the finish, I just had to keep going. (I also knew that I was still in front of a one of the coaching from Rogue...another running club in Austin...and wanted to hang on as he'd beaten me in the previous 2 races, and was about 5 minutes in front of me in the distance challenge). So I dug deep, and when I saw mile 18, i.e .6 miles to go I thought....go with with everything you have...and I started to close the gap on Ivi, and a guy running near her. When I got to about 300 yards from the end I could hear the finish line announcer, and I also thought of David willing me on at the end of the Run For The Water in October, and kicked as hard as I could. It wasn't anything special, but it took me past Ivi and the guy in the green top. I also beat the coach from Rogue by about 2 minutes 20 seconds. So the gap is now under 3 minutes with just the marathon to go in the 6 race series that is the Austin Distance Challenge. I have no idea what I'll do on race day. If I had to guess, I'd say about 3:20. I'm certainly capable of more, but I simply haven't trained hard enough. After the marathon I have decided to take 6 months off from hard training. I'll be limiting myself to 3 easy runs per week for 6 months. Famous last words I am sure ;o). | 