This ended up being more of a glorified tempo run than a race for me, spent a fair amount of time stressing out over slick spots on the road. Never could loosen up and felt overly tense the whole time. With the cold/slick/sloppy conditions prior to the race I had completely gotten out of the mindset of trying to go all-out, then when it turned out the roads weren't quite as bad as expected I just could never seem to get my head into race mode. So it is what it is and I'm ok with the sub-20 even though it was over a full minute slower than last year and over 2 minutes slower than the Great Terry Bean who had an awesome race and ran sub-18. Woke up to a blizzard and almost decided to bag the race and just do a long run close to home. But weather forecast showed clearing later and so thought I'd take my chances. Drive up with Kim was downright treacherous with lots of cars off the road. Luckily we had left plenty early and were able to get to the race with plenty of time. Met up with Terry, got on the bus and had time before to get in 3 miles warmup. The first and last part of the race had the worst of the slick spots but I was surprised that most everyone seemed to still able to run pretty quick the first mile and I tried to switch into a quicker mindset but it just wasn't working. I did end up running my first mile similar pace as last year but miles 2 and 3 were a lot slower. I may see if I can find a 5K in 2 weeks and try and put my recent training to better use than I did today. | 