I felt good about the event going into the race. Training went well. I enjoyed the training and was nailing the workouts, especially in the last month. In terms of training, I had the volume, the consistency and the speed work.

I had my plan and I felt like I could execute it but in the end, that did not happen. My brain said legs, go faster and my legs gave me the middle finger. I'm just really disappointed in myself.

The only odd thing about the race itself was that my neck got all jammed up. How does one's neck get messed up when running, especially when it has never happened before. About 2/3 through the race, I noticed that my neck felt really tight. It felt better when I looked just right in front of me -- like 6-10 feet in front of me. I tried to relax my neck and shoulders but that did not help. When I (finally) crossed the finish line, I did the arms up thing and looked at the clock and my neck kind of spasmed. I must have looked terrible because they put me in a chair and took me to the med tent (my first ever visit to a med tent) where they did nothing for my neck (didn't even look), just had me sit down and gave me some anti-nausia meds, took my vitals and let me go as soon as I drank some Gatorade. I said something to Kevin about it later and he confirmed that I did look pretty bad.

Well organized event.