I had planned on starting at around 7:00/mile and creeping up in pace as the race went on..... But, when the horn blew, a group of people went off the front and I just kind of went with them. There was a guy that looked like a great runner--just had the look-- that I ran with.

Interestingly, a woman went off the front and put about 100 meters on the lead group. At first I thought it was just a stunt--she didn't look the part of a lead runner, but she led the race through four miles and looked really strong.

I ended up running with another guy and eventually he and I took the lead (around mile four as I recall) and shared it for the next two miles. Nice guy. Running very smooth. A little faster than I wanted to be going but we cruised.

As we turned on to Belle Isle, there is a little hill over the bridge. I slowed a little bit and the other guy put about 20 yards on me at this point. I could see him for the entire rest of the race but he proceeded to run 1-2 seconds/mile faster than me and I could never close the gap. He ended up finishing 31 seconds ahead of me but I had nothing more to give to try to catch him.

Belle Isle went by in a blur. I saw my friend, Sharon running on to the island as I was running off. As we turned West off of the bridge there was a nominal, but significant headwind that made things a little bit harder. It also kept me very cool for the rest of the race. Coming off of the bridge there was approximately 3.6 miles left and I was starting to hurt a bit...

So the next three miles were all about damage control while maintaining my pace. I could still see the leader, maybe 30-35 yards ahead of me but I was not getting any closer despite running 6:02-4ish pace.

As we crossed the 11 mile marker, I told myself what I always do, "anyone can hang on for two miles." But man, was I at my limit. Of course with about 1.5 miles left you go up the first of the only two real hills (I guess the Belle Isle bridge is a hill in both directions too) on the course. It hurt and I slowed to around 6:30 up the hill but was able to accelerate at the top back into the 6:teens.

As I was coming up to the turn on to the last hill someone yelled that it was less than half a mile left. I knew I couldn't catch the first place guy. I sure didn't want to let anyone catch me (I had no idea that third place was over three minutes behind at this point). I just gutted the last hill out, turned left and gave it everything I had for the last 300 or so yards to the finish.

I finished feeling a little dazed and fairly close to puking so I knew I had given all I had. There was no more. Amazingly, within just a couple minutes, as my skyrocketing heart rate came back down, I felt absolutely great.



This is about as good as I could do this. I was untapered and I explored my mental and physical limits on this run.

Stretching. Food. Gatorade. Water.

I stayed at the finish line until Sharon finished. She was running while injured and hit her target time almost on the nose. Great race for her. Congratulations, Sharon.


No taper.