This might have been the best race I've ever run. Looking back at my race reports I can't count how many times I've had to pee, or I've been too thirsty, or I was sick, or I was nursing an injury, or blah blah blah. This entire race I felt great.

So as mentioned we started about 8 minutes behind the official start time. I ran a blistering (for me at this length) 8:05 mile while still keeping Andy in sight. After the first mile (and even a bit before then) I caught up to the big pack of runners and for the next 3 miles I was constantly weaving in and out and passing folks like crazy. It felt good to be passing so many people for once. I should show up to races late more often!

The whole time I just kept thinking how good I felt. After the first mile I made the decision to ease back on the throttle and let Andy go. I focused on breaking the race down into 4 minute segments and just counting down the miles. I hit the 2 mile water station and remembering that one of my goals was to stay hydrated I grabbed a water bottle (I loved it! They had bottles! Not those damn cups!), took 4 sips, and then tossed it.

I kept cruising up the street, hopping up on the curb as I passed folks until we entered the park. The hills started here, but I don't know if it was the elevation difference between Knoxville and Louisville, the carb loading and power bar, or just the hills I've trained on but they went really easy for me. I just thought to myself, okay time to HTFU, and cranked up em.

I hit the halfway point at 44:16 and realized I had a great shot at breaking 1:30, which was my original goal before I started having the quad issues. I had been worried about my lack of training and the slowness of some of my runs, but when I hit this point I still felt great and everything was clicking.

The miles flew by and once we hit the 6 miles mark the volunteers claimed it was all downhill from there. I was still hitting every water station and taking my 4 sips. After we got out of the park Bridget caught up with me and it was fun chatting with a familiar face or a few minutes before she dropped back.

Once I hit the 7 mile mark I thought well, less than a 5K left and I really tried to pick up the pace. I continued to do this for the rest of the race and I think one of those later miles I did in 8:20 or so. And sure I was helped by the downhills, but I'm really happy I was able to run a negative split for the second half of the race.

The last mile was fun. The overpass hill wasn't that bad and cruising into the stadium for the finish was fun. I actually had a little bit of a sprint going at the end and I felt great when I crossed the finish line.





Nothing really. I felt great the entire race. Maybe this meant I didn't go hard or fast enough, but I was tired of not being able to run the entire race the first time I tried a longer distance. I listened to my body and ran at a comfortable pace the entire race. I kept myself hydrated, warm, and feeling great.

I walked to the water station, got my chip cut off, and then headed to section 102 to meet up with everyone, cursing Andy that he picked the section on the opposite side of the stadium from the finish. Andy beat me by about 4:30, Bridget came in a few minutes after me, my wife did an awesome job at a 9:35 pace, and we all got to cheer David in as he crossed the finish line around 1:50. I avoided the free pizza and had a nice 2 mile cooldown walk to the car.


Well with the quad issue I had dealt with earlier in the year I was just focused on getting the distance in and avoiding re-injury so I trained slow and steady. But overall I'm pleased.


I really enjoyed this race. There were lots of spectators cheering us on and the volunteers were great. Water stations were every 2 miles (with bottles!!!) and there were even orange slices out there.