Decided to do this race a few days before, mainly because Erica was feeling good and I needed to let loose a little. This is not a PR course. Quite hilly and the wind was blowing. Rough goal of around 20 minutes and top 15.

Started off at a good pace and really tried not to look at the Garmin much. Passed by the usuals who go out too fast. Hit Mile 1 @ 6:23 and felt good! But then long gradual climb towards mile 2 where a pretty good hill awaited. Garmin showed my pace had dropped quite a bit but I still felt good and I think it was more the incline than anything. Continued picking off runners and really pushed up the hill. Opened up the last mile as we finally had the wind at our backs and a relative downhill. Picked off two more crossing back over Lucent but couldn't get a 12 year old kid a few second in front of me. Last mile in 6:19.

Maybe pushed more from mile 1 to 2. I knew the course and the hill that awaited so maybe I got a little conservative.

Walked around. Hung out with the family.


The course. Ran it about as hard as I could but there's no PR on a course like this.
I think if this had been a flat race I would have easily been under 20 minutes.


Had to walk back towards the starting area to find water. This area was crazy as runners were coming in, making a loop, and then heading back to the finish. Surprised no one got run over. Just water for post-race refreshments; nothing else. Heard a number of runners complaining that their chips didn't pick up finishing times. This, of course, delayed the awards ceremony. The initial results had me 3rd in my age division so I stuck around and got my medal. But today I dropped two places overall and two places in my age group so not so meaningful now.