really a fun race... and a great course... mostly flat... but some nice little hills thrown in to keep you honest...

its a bit different for me going off in a running race like this vs. most triathlons though... because in this race i started off near the front... and in most tri's i've got a healthy number of folks in front of me by the time i hit the run course... so by starting off near the front every one around you is frickin' fast...!!! however, it was interesting watching these guys go out... because there were some really strong runners up front... and watching them break off into packs was cool... counted the runners in front and knew i was around 20th... so knew i would have probably catch a couple over the course of the race to stay in the top 20... anyway... hit the first mile at 6:20... knew it was a little fast so pulled back a bit in mile 2... a couple guys came up to me and we were all all shooting for roughly the same time... so decided to hang together... then 'girl #1' rolled up on us... she too was going for roughly the same time... however she said she was just taking easy until mile 8 (6:25s - 6:30s)... then she was going to start racing... sounded pretty impressive to me... as i was thinking that if i could keep this up to mile 8... i hope i can live to see the finish.... but anyway... the 4 of us hung together for a while... i think i was setting the pace for the next few miles... girl #1 kept getting cheers from the crowds as the first place girl as we were going... also, she kept telling me to "run the tangents"... in a very nice way though... miles 2 and 3 were around 6:30... felt our pace starting to slip a bit... so started pushing a little more... somewhere in mile 4 girl #1 and one of the guys dropped back a bit.. so me and another guy pushed on... miles 4, 5 and 6 were in the 6:26 range... and feeling okay... legs started feeling a bit heavier over the next 2 miles... but pacing didn't fall off too much... low 6:30s... we hit mile 8 and i mentioned that we'll probably see girl #1 come flying by at any moment... things started hurting more during mile 8... look at the other guy and ask him how he's feeling... he just shrugs and says "great"... and i say that i'm starting to hurt a bit... i think he took that as his opportunity to drop me at the next water station around mile 9.... pace slowed a bit over the next couple miles... upper 6:30s.... girl #1 comes running by sometime late mile 11/early 12... and was looking strong... i just hang back from her and try to keep pace... i was pretty confident i was not going to catch anyone down the stretch... so was just trying to limit the passes... late mile 12 out of nowhere girl #2 passes me... we were probably about 15 yards back from girl #1... she just slowly closed the gap... and again... i was just wanting to keep up to watch the whole thing unfold... early in mile 13 she just comes up on her side... and they go stride for stride for a while... girl #2 surges ahead... girl #1 catches and surges back... and this goes back and forth for most of mile 13... not to digress too much, and not to sound like a complete pig, but both girls were remarkably attractive, which made the whole thing that much more enjoyable to watch from my vantage point... ;) but anyway... the last 1/4 mile of mile 13 is uphill... and girl #2 was pulling ahead... which she held through a sprint to the finish... was entertaining to watch... even though i was secretly cheering for girl #1... sometime during all of this i got passed by 1 or 2 others over the last few miles... and i managed to pass one back... so i dropped a few spots from where i started... but held on okay... was definitely tiring at the end of the race though... but held close to pace pretty well nonetheless... especially considering there are a few more hills towards the end of the race... finished in 1:25:15 (chip)... crushed my previous PR (from April) by over 7 minutes... was feeling great about that...

splits for the race were as follows...
1 - 6:20
2 - 6:32
3 - 6:30
4 - 6:25
5 - 6:26
6 - 6:26
7 - 6:31
8 - 6:32
9 - 6:37
10 - 6:37
11 - 6:42
12 - 6:37
13.1 - 7:15 for the last 1.1 miles (6:35 pace)

shortly after i finished lrunfit (lisa) came up to me to congratulate me... i looked back at the clock and knew that she had smoked her PR as well...!!! great race lisa (4th OA / 1st AG)...!!! we'll both be making a run for boston in a few weeks... and the results of this race bode well for both of us...


i seem to be making it a habit to go out hard and see if i can hold it... maybe one of these races i'll ease back a little at the beginning and see if i can finish a bit stronger...?!? not sure... i'm fine with how this one went though...

after i finished i walked to about 2/3 the way down the finishing hill to cheer everyone on... it was great to see so many people i knew finishing the race...


nothing really... this wasnt an "A" race... and i did not treat it as such... so had I the result may have been better... but still really pleased with the outcome...!!!


once again, great day and a great race... good to see all of the donkeys out there... pjgrande, lrunfit, rosshole and his wife, kbreitz and his wife (congrats to her on the hardware), tall_tri_dad and jmwebs... plus a number of people from my office (and their spouses) out there as well...

oddly enough I actually missed all 3 of my goals but am still really pleased with the result... once again, goals were...

1) finish in the top 20 (finished 22nd/838)...
2) top 3 AG (finished 4th/55)...
3) go sub 1:25... (finished 1:25:15)...

thats okay... came close on all three...!!! will get 'em next time... :)