They used chips for the finish times but we all started from the gun. I was about 15 feet back from the start line. When we went it was pretty crowded for the first half block and then spread out a little for the hill descent. I roll downhill pretty well and moved up through the crowd. According to the garmin record my HR was over 170 in under 4 minutes and stayed there except for the times I walked. At the bottom I heard one lady tell another that we were on about a 7min/mile pace so I eased up a bit.

There are streetlights on the hill but much of the route in the river bottom is unlit. The overcast reflected city light from both sides of the river though and it was easy enough to run. They had course marshalls with lights anywhere the path branched and some blinking yellow roadside hazard lights along the way too. I followed one 'rabbit' after another but usually only for a few minutes before passing them. There was a water station at the 6km turn around so we passed it twice. I walked for a few seconds to drink each time.

Partway between the aid station and the bottom of the hill, I started matching pace with another guy and we exchanged a few comments. At this point we were running through the 6km race crowd and passing a lot of people. As we turned to head up the hill, I told him he would probably lose me on the climb and to have a good run. He wasn't so sure. We matched pace up the hill for over 4 minutes, passing literally hundreds of walkers, but my HR was over LT as soon as we hit the hill and I wimped out. With the top in sight, I told him to go on and slowed to walk for a few seconds. It couldn't have been too long though because I was less than 12 seconds behind him at the finish.

I got some water and eventually remembered to stop the garmin. Doh! A couple of ladies invited me to go for a cooldown run but we had only gone a block or so when I saw my nephew, who I hardly ever see. I told the ladies to go on and stopped to talk. From there I walked a couple of blocks to the mall entrance and went in for the post-race food, awards, giveaways, etc.


They gave out medals in each age group down to 5th place, so I got one! I never would have believed it when I did this race two years ago, but I beat that time by over 13 minutes. :)