The first 3 miles were great; good pace, not congested - just right. Saw Jon on his return in mile 4 (and the crazy speed walker guy - so odd but cool, too!) Once i hit the mile 5 marker i knew there was big trouble. I was hot; the water-stations had run out of cups and Gatorade and i still had a LONG way to go. the hills in 5 & 6 are endless but offer a cool view back to the city, i was really happy with my 10K split of 1'02". but then i thought; shit maybe i went too fast... oh well too late! There's a long mile + decline that offered little relief for the hill at 11 which i walked the entire thing - i was COOKED; it's at least a mile long STRAIGHT UP. the rest was just sheer misery to the finish line - walk run fast slow whatever i could to get there. It was on this stretch that i got my first 'pick me up' I cheer people on all the time if i see them falter - i think it helps them and it helps me too... well i sure needed it in that last mile and a sweet girl was passing me as i just gasped and walked; she looked over her shoulder and said 'you can do it' 'we're so close now!' so i had no choice but to pick up the pace and sure enough the finish line was in sight! The saving grace was that i was by no means alone at any time - i kept pace with a really big group throughout the whole race. There was one girl who i swear ran most of it backwards as she looked-out for her friend - so sweet. There was also an older man that rode his bike along side his wife the whole time!
i was psyched to see the way active.com lists results - my pace was only 4 minutes slower than the average female! that would be more impressive if i hadn't remembered that there were a lot of people that walked the entire course... oh well maybe someday i'll be a true middle-of-the-packer ;)

I emailed the race peeps to ask about water on the course and although there were plenty of stations they were NO WHERE near equipped for the amount of people racing; maybe the math was off because each station was hit twice due to the switch backs.... i don't know but i didn't get any Gatorade and i bet that hurt me; i did have gels so maybe not. I was grossly impacted speedwise because you had to either grab a gallon jug yourself or have them pour water into your cupped hands - that created quite the shit show if you know what i mean!

jon was right there at the finish line so we just wondered around aimlessly until we collapsed in the shade. i was NOT interested in food so i just drank a Mix1 and ate an orange.


i definitely didn't get the miles in before hand - plain and simple


i hate giving low rating but there were some real rookie mistakes made by a nationwide org. their facebook page was BLASTED after the race. it's a bummer because they have such potential.

I'll do it next year - with my fuel belt attached!