After the sprained ankle in the last race, and I knew that even if I could somehow manage to get 1st in my ag group, I still wouldn't jump the two guys in front of me in the standings, I made the decision to run hard, earn my points to keep my place and come away injury free. We started out fast enough, and I am really liking the feel of the speed laces this year, my shoes feel like extensions of my feet, while not beeing too tight and constricting any bloodflow. I think I let myself get caught in a lull in the second mile and wasn't really pushing the pace much until someone came up behind me and egged me on to pick up the pace since I was only running the 5 mile and I was almost half-way through. Just past the 3 mile marker, the trails split and the starts the singletrack. I had planned on sitting in there, and trying to make sure I kept my footing and save energy for the last mile since it was all uphill. I was all alone out there, and while I thought I heard someone behind me, when I checked back I couldn't see him. I played it safe on the rocky and rooted sections this time around, and made it through cleanly to the 1 mile left marker. From this point on the trail goes up, up, up, some sections pretty steep needing water bars to keep them from eroding during rainfall. The rest of the race was pretty uneventful, although I put on the jets while going uphill as I eventually did hear the guy behind me right around the 1 mile left to go section since you run over a suspension style bridge that can be pretty noisy. He came up to me later and said he was trying his hardest to catch up and congratulated me for holding on.

Maybe race the course the way I feel is best.. run hard for the first three miles, sit in and rest during the 1 mile of singletrack, and then charge up the last mile to the finish. I settled in too early.