After a too-fast start (sub-7's up the hill in that first mile... fool!) and getting passed by some smarter racers in the second mile (I'll get you someday, Sri...), I settled into 15th place and stayed there for the whole race, except for a brief loss due to an entirely necessary mile-4 pee break (I may never learn) and some back-and-forth with Sue Dean in the middle there. After hearing several tales of headwinds past, it was a pleasure to head north up River Road into no-wind-whatsoever. There was great water station help, more crowd support in the rural areas than I'd have expected, and a fun finish-area atmosphere. Despite my slightly disappointing finish time (1:37:21), I loved this run.
Ultimately, this was one of those races. Mentally I had been treating it as an "A race," but I just didn't do that well. I'm not sure what the variable was (sleep? nutrition? training? beer?), but I ended up doing worse than the Westfield half back in February, which I think was technically hillier. The course here was extremely fair (see map) and the weather was great and I don't think I went out TOO too fast, but I just didn't have enough gas in the tank to do it.
hey, my legs at the starting line! (photos from the race website)
pre-race clown fail (you get what I was going for here)
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