I started with a very strong pace, taking advantage of the general down hill trend at the beginning. I got a little too preoccupied with my potential 10K split and didn't start hydrating early enough. I took walk breaks pretty often (15', 30', and probably every mile after that). It turns out there was not mat or clock at 10K as promised - bummer! I fell behind the 8:15-8:30 pacers and then much later the 8:30-8:45 pacer and got a little too pre-occupied with that, too. I kept reminding myself to pay attention to my breathing, my HR, and my own pace to get back on track. I felt especially great in mile 8 (not my usual "magic mile 7") and took my gel at mile 9. I was thrilled with my pace up to mile 10. After that, I really struggle with my pace. My HR was doing OK, but my legs were really fatigued and I didn't have any push left for the climb at the end. I was still walking every mile for about :45, and I actually had to walk 2X in the last mile. No sprint to the finish was possible. I definitely used up everything I had here!

Always remember to run my own race, and start drinking my Perpetuum earlier. I think I could possibly have been better hydrated coming into this, but I am not sure. I think I need to experiment more with pre-race electrolytes.

I drank 2 cups of water, walked a bit, then sat and rested. I went to the food tent for a section of orange, a banana, an egg w/a few potatoes, and a piece of a white bagel. Then I changed into dry clothes, stretched, and got a free massage - excellent!


My legs were pretty fatigued coming into this race. If it had been an A race, I would have tapered for it and that probably would have made a BIG difference. My legs held up the best in the first hour - consistent w/ the length of my interval work-outs so far. Looking forward, I need to build up to longer interval work-outs, possibly including longer intervals, and keep working on loosing some of my extra weight.


This was an excellent race! They started us in waves since the paths were on the narrow side, so this helped to keep things from getting too bottled up. The widest section was in the beginning, so things had time to spread out before we hit the trails. The parks were beautiful! There were no lines for packet pick-up. There were plenty of porta-johns and parking was easy. There were more than enough drink stations, and a huge variety of food at the end including fruit, bages, subs, pizza, baked ziti, eggs and breakfast potatoes. I just wish they gave bottles of water at the finish line instead of cups. There was live music and free massages with very little waiting time at the finish. The results were posted almost immediately. We got really nice Brooks technical long-sleeved shirts in our packets, and an embroidered knit cap at the finish line. Great stuff! I will look for this one again!