I really didn't know what to expect. I honestly was shooting for under 1:28:00, but was secretly hoping to go under 1:26:00. I seem to hold something in reserve at most my races and didn't want to use that strategy this time. I wanted to put it all out on the line. I wanted to finish with absolutely nothing left in the tank. I wanted to hurt and know that if anything I gave it everything I had. I hit my first mile in 6:04, after that I settled into a pace that was hard but somewhat sustainable. I hit my 5k at 19:24 and thought "I'm pretty sure that's the fastest 5k I've ran". When I got to the 10k mark I whipped my out gel and glanced at the Garmin. I was absolutely floored when I saw 39:19. That beat my fastest ever 10k by 21 seconds. That rush carried me all the way to the 10 mile mark. At that point I knew I was going to PR pretty big. The last 2 miles hurt pretty bad. It was what my buddy Dime referred to as an anticipated and managed fade. Mile 11 was far and away the hardest. I was just trying to hang on at that point. When I saw the 12 mile sign I knew speeding up was going to hurt something awful, but I did. Came through the finish with pain written all over my face. Got the pics to prove it. This race hurt, but I learned so much from it. My average HR was so high and I didn't know that I could sustain that.

Nothing at all!

Walked through the finish line and got a chocolate milk and stretched a bit.


This is probably one of my favorite races I've ever done. Everything worked out great. Hanging out with some of the coolest people I've ever met made the experience that much better. Thanks for a great weekend guys!!!