I am very pleased at how this race went. I could not have run more perfectly. The race started a little earlier this year, at 7 instead of 7:30. My bro and I were supposed to meet people at 6:15, but we got there a little later because I thought he was awake when I went downstairs to pump. He sneezed and I God blessed him. But it turns out that he sneezes in his sleep, because he didn't know what I was talking about when he came downstairs to crab at me for not waking him up. Then, because he is a woman, he took some time getting ready. We did hook up with my friends before the race. But then, because I am a woman, I had to use the POP. Luckily my bro came with me. We didn't see my friends till the finish. It was a good thing. They probably would have thrown us off our race. After the POP stop, we tried to get into our corral, but couldn't because there were too many people. At this point we were trying to reconnect with friends, and we had told them we would meet them by the 1:45 pacer, but we couldn't even get inside! Once the first wave started, we were able to get into the corral, but couldn't get close to the pacer. We decided that we'd try to catch up quickly once we were able to start, just on the off chance that we'd find our friends. In the first mile, I really thought that was a mistake. We went out too fast. At one point I looked down and we were running at 6:15 pace. Stupid, I thought. We couldn't find our people, so after a little under a 1/2 mile, we decided to settle into our pace. The first mile was 7:34. After about 4 miles (7:51, 7:48, and 7:59 were the next splits), I thought we might have a shot at breaking 1:43 (1:45 was the original goal). I didn't say anything to my brother, but I led the next several miles (7:47, 7:53 and 7:56). Then he said something to me about having plenty of cushion to hit our goal, and we quickly verbalized the new plan, and got to work. Next miles were through a neighborhood and park (7:45--slight downhill, 7:50, and 8:05). I could tell my brother was flagging a little. We talked about just focusing on the 5K that we had left, and then kinda settled a little too much. Next miles were 8:01 and 8:07, and at that point, I had my internal pep talk. I told myself that I wanted to push it to the end, no sorrows at the end. Just convinced myself that I would push. At that point there was a girl in front of me that I wanted to beat, and another girl who blasted past me with about .6 to go. I went with her, my brother came along, and we finished with a 7:39 mile and :44 for the last .1. I am really happy with my performance. I felt great at the end. Only significant problem is that I wore a skort, thinking it would chafe less, but even though I brought some lube, I forgot to apply prior to the race. My inner thighs are pretty torn up and bloody. I could feel the chafing at about mile 8, but it didn't really hurt until I discovered (in the car) how bad it actually was. What a rookie mistake! I don't know what made the most difference today. I think running with my brother was a difference maker. But 3 years ago I think I was more faithful to actually training. However, I did have some big depressing life moments in the 3 weeks before this race. Also, it was PERFECT weather today. Sunny, but in the low 50s at the start. Don't know how high it went, but it wasn't the 75 degrees that it was 3 years ago. I will probably have to fix my time, since my watch said 1:43:05 and my brother's said 1:43:20 (or at least that's what he says). So I'll fix when I look up the official results. Unofficially, the results put me at 1:43:09. Right now, they have me listed as 17th in my age division (out of just under 500) and 98 out of 3310 for woman overall. That will probably change, but I hope I'll be able to say I was in the top 100 women! | 
