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Comments: I positioned myself towards the front of the start and just waited while the event staff prepped us. At the "GO", I just started to run at a decent pace and hanging with the FOP. There was some congestion, but it quickly fell back. I was never crowded/boxed in after that. The first three miles were great. Fast, semi flat, and non-technical...but muddy. I hopped over a few mud puddles and saw a few unfortunate souls get sucked into them and almost lose their shoes. hehe. After those first three miles, I was feeling strong and attacked the hills smartly (smartly is relative, btw). Not too fast, but not giving up alot of ground to the other racers. I was good to go through the rest of the first half of the course. Around the 10K point is when I really started to feel the hills. My pace dropped off considerably and my legs and lungs were crying foul. I slowed down a bit to recover, then felt strong again...I was using the down hill sections to make up ground. It was fun sprinting down them and using the momentum to go up a hill. I came up on a group of 2 runners and we took turns passing each other. We did this for a while, then I caught a glimpse of pink through the woods. I inconspicuously glanced to my rear as I was rounding a corner and noticed a pink running top and beanie. Crap! Strong female to the rear! She was gaining on us slowly, but surely. One of the guys dropped back and was quickly overtaken by Pink. I now had a subgoal for this race...NOT let her pass/beat me. At mile 10.3 she caught me and passed me as I was going up a hill. Damn! I made sure to stay close and not let her get too far ahead. I quickly caught up to her (nice pace booty!) and we chatted a bit. Very friendly and I think she ended up taking 1OA female. We exchanged places a few times for the next mile, or so. Not many hills left, so I could feel my power meter recharging. A volunteer told us there was a quarter mile left. I thanked her for keeping me company, then I took off and finished strong. One thing that I did very well during this race was cut tangents and smartly dodge unnecessary obstacles. I think I saved myself at least a good minute or more overall. What would you do differently?: Maybe not start out so fast!? I also need more hill training and more trail runs.  Post race
Warm down: Stretched a bit, ate two bananas, drank hot chocolate and a hot tea, and then met the BT crew. We talked a bit about the race and hung out. What limited your ability to perform faster: Not much hill/trail running. Event comments: Very good race. Too bad they ran out of soup so fast! Last updated: 2010-02-04 12:00 AM
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United States
GUTS
30F / -1C
Overcast
Overall Rank = 18/300?
Age Group = 34
Age Group Rank = 0/
Met Jim (jiminatl) at his house and drove to Red Top. The drive was uneventful and it was nice to get a detailed race course report.
At one point, we almost skidded off the road as we were taking a detour. What looked like wet road was actually black ice. Jim's cat like reflexes saved our lives...haha, not really...we skidded a little to the left, a little to the right, but Jim recovered nicely.
We arrived at the RTT site at 7AM or so and sat in the car for 15 mins. I ate my peanut butter and banana sandwich and drank hot tea. I also sipped on my HEED.
After a while, Jim and I went down to registration, picked up our packets, and went to the baño. Not many ppl waiting to go at this time. We then headed back to the car to warm up a bit and ge ready.
Schwag was not bad. At first, I was disappointed that the race shirt was cotton, but after I wore it later that day, decided it was fine.
I went for a 10 minute run around the parking lot and some trails prior to the race. I didn't want to start out hard and pull a muscle, as it was COLD.
After warmup, jogged back to the car and met up with Jim. We then walked back to the start line.