race starts off fine... hanging with scott and lisa (lrunfit) at the beginning... i had set my watch to basically only show lap time, avg lap pace and hr... was just going to take it mile by mile... the first 4 miles of the course had some nice little hills to deal with... well... not so little during mile 4 i guess... avg pace (per garmin) was right on plan through the first 3 miles... was off a couple seconds by lap time though due to measurement, not running tangents, garmin, etc... 6:52, 6:50, 6:50... (avg. per garmin was 6:52, 6:50, 6:47) but keeping it close to plan... dropped a few seconds on mile 4 as i was trying to keep the hr in check while dealing with the hills... mile 4 - 6:51... but still feeling good... funny to see deannas in her carrot costume cheering at the top of a hill during mile 4... my focus was apparently wavering a bit early in the race... because i kept forgetting which mile i was on (and would have to ask people around me)... and since my watch wasnt showing total time or distance i couldnt figure it out that way... i think mile 5 was measured wrong... my goal was 6:40... garmin had avg pace at 6:39... but lap time was 6:54... gained it back up on mile 6 though with a 6:32... must have been around mile 5 that i saw a 'carrot' up ahead... and i knew that couldnt be good news... as i was pretty sure that dave (djdavey) was the only donkey ahead of me... he had troubles with his calf and was trying to walk it off a bit... i was really bummed to see him there because i knew that he was ready to hammer it that that race... wind was definitely a factor during the first 6 miles... it wasnt as bad early in the race because of the larger crowds... but as things thinned out it was becoming more of a factor... and due to my strategy of dropping the pace each mile... it had me constantly passing people the entire race... but also had me doing most of the wind blocking for others... as i couldn't hang behind anyone for too long... i think it was during mile 7 that we turned onto the crushed stone trail... it started feeling pretty warm without the wind... so i was really glad i brought the fuel belt as i was really needing the fluids... during mile 7 i realized that i probably wasnt going to be able to get the pace down to where i wanted it to be for the last half of the race... so decide to just take it one mile at a time... or two miles at a time... as was the case here because i somehow missed the mile marker for 7... my combined time goal for miles 7 and 8 was 13:05... and i did them in 13:09... so was still keeping close to pace through 8... i knew the next mile i was supposed to target a 6:28 but my legs didnt want to hold the pace... so i went into 'hunter' mode... and just focused on continuing to pick people off... that was the nice thing about starting a little easier at the beginning... lots of people to run down... mile 9 - 6:44, mile 10 - 6:39... started to really heat up once you got back on the road in mile 10... also, saw lisa and scott after i made the turnaround there... and they seemed to be running well... missed my water at the aid station so had to double back to grab one... was really starting to feel dehydrated... legs were getting a bit heavy here and logged a 6:47 for mile 11... after mile 11 was when the fun began... coming into mile 12 there were some long stretches were you could see up ahead... and i could see 5 or 6 guys that looked like they could be in my AG (hard to tell from behind)... was debating on whether to put it on cruise control the last 2 miles and just hold my spot... or make things really painful and try to catch them... obviously chose the later... :) so i made it my goal to pass all of them the last 2 miles... i caught 2 or 3 early in mile 12... tracking 2 others that i was having difficulty making up any distance on... then late in mile 12 one of the guys took a turn pretty wide while one of the other guys was doing a nice job of running the tangents... i knew i had to make a move soon... because there were others yet to go after... i followed the guy running the tangent and quickly made up ground on the one going wide... pass him... and the other guy i'm following starts fading a bit... we both hit mile 12 at the same time... mile 12 - 6:40 for me... i can tell he's done... so i start bearing down on the other one ahead of me... there was some pretty good distance between us... so i knew i had to really go after it... was pushing really hard now... and i'm sure the guy could here me breathing from about 20 yards away... we are going into the wind and uphill... so i decide to give it all i have to catch him... as i approach him i can see another guy about 30-40 yards in front of him that he's trying to run down... i catch my guy and sit off his shoulder for about 15 seconds to let him pull me a bit into the wind so i can catch my breath... i can tell he's trying to drop me... i considered just hanging there with him... he slows a bit... trying to bait me into taking the lead... i decide i can't hang around too long playing these games if i'm going to catch the other guy up ahead of us... so what the heck.. i take the bait and start pushing again... as expected, he's matching me... now sitting off of my shoulder... we are closing the gap on the guy ahead of us... keep pushing... and keep closing... we get about 10 yards behind him... with a little under a 1/2 mile to go... and i'm thinking that i dont want to have to try and outkick these 2 guys at the end... because i doubt that i'll be able to do it... so i just take off... i felt like seabiscuit... the thought was just break these guys here and dont look back... i catch the guy ahead... tell myself "don't look, don't look, just keep going..." i push past him... and i'm waiting to hear them coming back up on me... but it didnt seem like either were responding or surging back... i'm too afraid to look.. so i kept pushing... mile 13 - 6:27 (felt faster than that though with the wind and hill)... i hit the corner where you turn left in front of the brewery and then look over my shoulder... about a 20 yard cushion... i'm safe... coast it in the last 50 yards or so...

that was a fun race... obviously i would have liked to have posted a faster time... but was really pleased with how i 'raced' the last couple miles...

hang out and chat with my fellow donkeys and coworkers/friends that are at the race... walk around... stretch... eat... drink...

didnt hit my time goals... but still felt like i raced well... and i got my beer mug trophy for 2nd AG... :)


Really a great race... only negative was the lack of water on the course... but just a very fun race atmosphere... which was obviously helped by the unseasonably warm temps... and the GREAT donkey crew that was present...!!!