I started off fast. I didn't know if I could hold the pace, but I was in corral 1, so when you're surrounded by fast runners, it's hard not to run fast with them. I settled into a good pace and hit the 5k mark at around 20 minutes. I thought this was probably too fast, but I was feeling okay, so I stuck with the pace. I was consistent through the 10k mark, averaging around a 6:45 min mile. I thought I was probably going to slow down from there, but apparently I sped up. I didn't pay much attention to pace and just ran by RPE. I kept it slow up the hills, fairly hard on the flats, and then just focused on quick turnover on the downhills. It must have worked, because by the time I hit the 10 mile mark I saw that I was averaging 6:40's and was on pace to break 90 minutes. At that point I just tried to sustain the effort and while I think I slowed some, it wasn't by much. I was taking cytomax at every other station and had taken a Gel at mile 4.5, so I was pretty strong. Unfortunately, my left hamstring camped pretty badly around the 11.5 mile mark. I knew I was still on pace, but it was tough to continue with the hamstring so tight. Very painful. So I kept my akward gait through the last mile and a half and finished with room to spare. It was a tough tough run, but I was very happy with the result. The times were very slow overall, so for me to finish with a good time was even better. People were dropping left and right from the heat.

I wish I had brought my 'Stick' to help warm up, but overall I think I nailed my pacing and nutrition. The cramp was painful, but I feel like I got plenty of salt. Maybe not.

No shirt for the next race...

Walk around, eat a banana and drink fluids. Watched Analise finish (and gave her a shoulder to cry on about her "horrible" run!).


1. Not enough hill training.
2. Weather.