Mile 1: 10:49 – way too fast. Way. Ran with a woman who organizes a local pool tri that’s new on the scene this year, let her go when I realize I am WAY ahead of where I should be, especially since there’s a nice slow rise for about half a mile. She comments that I’ll probably catch her later.
Mile 2: 11:54 - better. Hey, we are up, we are down… but there are no flats. Weird. Oh, and that weird noise? Cows mooing. First shot blok at 20 minutes, per plan (trying out the eating while running thing). Race director lady averages about 100 feet ahead of me, keeping her in my sights.
Mile 3: 11:48 - good, right on pace. Still no flat, but there’s a bagpiper off on a hillside. Gorgeous scenery. Still keeping the race director lady in view, maybe a smidge closer.
Mile 4: 12:15 – mostly uphill. Ran with a couple for a little while. They’d run the 5K earlier, she’s training for a half mary in a few weeks. Get dropped when she easily holds the pace on the net uphill. Mile 4.5 has second water stop…. Cheerleaders. Make it halfway past the line of them when one of them says, hey, it’s Monica! and they all started cheering for me. Freaked me out. Turns out AdCo gave them my race number and told them to cheer for me. About a quarter mile past the water stop, I pass race director lady. J Had another shot blok somewhere in this mile.
Mile 5: 11:48 - finally, some downhill. zip past the mile 5 marker down the steepest part of the course, flying, feeling good. Turn the corner and hey… look. It’s a hill. OK, I can do this, legs are tired but let’s work on our suffering skills (I think I’ll need them for my oly). Get up first bit, recover on the flat-ish piece.. then turn another corner and holy carp, long gradual climb. Go back into “I can suffer” mode, plug away. While I’m heading up the hill, some super speedy girl out for her cooldown runs the other way and says, looking good, running strong, you’re about halfway up. What? Only halfway up? Yikes. Keep repeating to myself that I am not going to walk.
Mile 6: 11:35 (what?) Get to the top, find some flat to recover on, try to push it a little to catch a guy I saw ahead of me on the hill who looked nearly dead. OK, caught him. Get passed by girl who looks like she’s only run about a mile. Apparently she saved a lot for the end. Around the corner to the six mile marker – realize that this is the farthest I have ever run w/out stopping.
Last .2: 2:13 – this is around a track… see AdCo, he tells me to kick it, I laugh and say there is no kick today. Push it as much as I can – look at watch and realize that I’m not going to beat 1:12 (super secret super duper goal), but I’m going to come close.

Post race: gave jacket to AdCo, as he finished in a great 55 minutes (better than goal) and was freezing since he’d cooled down. Cheered in race director lady. Wandered over for a post race massage, then headed out to see the niece play soccer.


Race was super well organized, course was very well marked, lots of volunteers, probably the friendliest crowd I’ve ever seen at a race. Despite the complete lack of flat (which turned out to be *gasp* fun), I enjoyed this race immensely. I’m now just SLIGHTLY less scared of my oly.