Unlike last year, I knew what to expect from this course. I'd run it a couple of times over the past month and I even tapered for this race. Still, you never know how you're going to feel on any given day and I began this race not feeling particularly great. Perhaps it something to do with the belly full of sushi I enjoyed the night before. But I wasn't going to pass up a night of sushi.

Fritz and I started out together at the same pace, picking our way through the back of the pack. As I predicted, when we started hitting the harder hills, people started walking left and right and we were slowed somewhat by trying to weave through the clutter.

Around 2.4 miles in, we reached our first flat section and came upon a guy blowing relentless snot rockets off to the side. I mean, this guy was throwing more mucus than a slug after a rainstorm. We bolted to the side and ahead to avoid the splatterfest but some lady behind us must have gotten nailed because we heard a very angry "Asshole!" before this woman goes flying past us like a bat out of hell.

At around this point we also came upon a stocky guy with a pony tail and week's growth on his face huffing and puffing along like a slobbery steam engine. We passed him and he immediately tried to re-pass us. Then we continued to leap-frog over the next .75 mile or so-- we pass him on the uphills, then he'd catch us on the flats. At some point, I decided I'd had enough and that there was no way I was going to let Granola Boy beat me. I also knew what was still to lay ahead-- Tower Hill, the nastiest of all climbs we'd see. Instead of burying the needle to stay ahead of him, I eased off and let him take off up ahead as I recovered my HR.

Finally we hit the hill, and I see him struggling his way up about 50 yards ahead. I began picking my way up at my pace, even letting Fritz go on up ahead for the first time. Within a few seconds, I closed the gap on Granola Guy and passed him, although by now I was redlining, too. When we hit the second really steep section of the climb, I had to give in and walk as well. That climb was just relentless. Having done this course before, I knew it was just smart strategy, too-- the next section of the course was mostly steep downhills, but in their own way almost as challenging as the uphills because you have to keep your speed under control around sharp turns as you fly down the slopes.

My plan worked to perfection-- I hit the top of Tower Hill, then burst downward like an owl on a divebomb run. Along this long stretch I passed probably a dozen or more racers who were too timid to use the steep downslopes to their advantage. This was the stretch that really made my race.

From here to the end, I really had my legs and finished strong, passing targets I thought I had no chance of passing and not allowing a single runner to pass me.

I never caught Fritz, but I finished very strong. In the end, I was nearly 5 full minutes faster than my time from last year, despit having about half the total run mileage due to my ankle problems from earlier this year. However, despite that time improvement, my AG rank was actually worse, dropping from 11/23 last year to 13/23 this year in the same AG. WTF?

Nothing. I ran the best race I could on this day. All my recent training has been LSD, aimed at building my base for next year's IM, so I shouldn't be too surprised I couldn't put in a better effort for a shorter race like this.

Stopped. Almost puked. Found Fritz and djdavey and checked the results together.


Not having done any speedwork recently.


I've come to absolutely LOVE this race. The course is beautiful and VERY challenging. And we couldn't have a better, perfectly cool Fall day to do this race. Greta way to wrap up the season if I don't decide to fit in another running race this year.