I went out with a pack of 10 guys and it sure felt like we were a bit slow in the beginning. We ended up hitting the mile mark just under 6 min which I think was a bit short...no way we were running that pace on the dirt path through the park. Over the next mile the pack started to string out and everyone settled into their place...I was running in 9th. Over the next 4-6 miles I picked up a couple of positions but tried to stay focused on just running my race and not trying to run people down. Around the 6-7 mile mark 2 guys passed me so I was back in 9th but the next guy up seemed to be slowing and I pulled up behind him. I checked my HRM a few times to make sure it wasn't me picking up the pace and my HR was actually dropping slightly. I paced with him to the 10 mile mark and decided to make a move there. I surged past and held a steady pace to see if he was going to come wth me but it wasn't gonna happen. At this point I should have been running in 8th. I could see the next guy up once in a while when we had a long straight section of road but he was too far ahead and I wasn't going to make a push. At this point I just wanted to run a steady 5k and hold my current position. If someone pulled up with me I'd push to hold but otherwise I wasn't going to kill myself. The last few miles are on the roads of the neighborhood and then into the park before making a U-turn and down 100m finishing chute on the grass. I finished strong but didn't break into an all-out sprint. The results have me in 7th so I'm not sure what happened...should have been someone else in front of me. My time was a PR by about 30sec but I think the course was a bit short. Between the technical sections of trail and all of the dirt trails I can't imagine I was able to beat my previous best on a flat road course in cool conditions.

I wanted to get a good hard long run and that's exactly what I got. That's all today was about and I was happy to win my age group while I was at it.

Grabbed a bottle of Powerade and went for a 10 min easy jog.


I really enjoyed this race. It was part of a large XC festival so there were lots of other races going on all day...mostly high school teams but also some open and racesand younger kids. The 1/2 mary was a nice low-key event. There weren't any spectators on the course aside from the volunteers but the constantly changing terrain keeps you engaged. They had 5 or 6 water/Powerade stations along the way which was plenty considering the cool conditions we had. I rated post race activities as good but the 1/2 mary was really not the focus of the day. The overall atmosphere was nice if you enjoy big XC meets and the weather was great for running.