This actually turned out better than I had expected. I was feeling pretty tired and draggy all week, but was much better this morning. I started off way too fast, trying to get to the head of the crowd. I felt awful for the first part of the race, so I just tried to stick with my pace and convinced myself I had to wait until the halfway point to walk, which worked. Jeff pulled away from me after about half of the first lap, though he remained within eyesight much of the race. I noticed that his glute was bothering him early and thought I'd be able to catch up, but he held his ground despite walking repeatedly. After the water station, where I walked briefly, things started to improve and I got into a bit of a groove. It wasn't fast, but it was consistent. I walked again for about 30 seconds around 29:00 and then kept running through the finish. I was able to accelerate just a little for the finish line, but there was no big power-through in me.

I'm tempted to say I should hang back and not go out fast with the crowd, because that had me feeling terrible for much of the first half of the race, but I also think that really kicked up my pace for the whole course. Starting some interval training should help me get used to that kind of speed so I can handle it better next time.

Just walked around a bit. We got out of there quickly because the rain started about five minutes before we finished the race. Knowing it was only going to get worse, we wanted to finish that mile walk back to the car quickly.


Inconsistent training, weight gain and lack of speed work. I think speed work will really help me get back into the zone I was in last fall more quickly.