The gun sounded and it took 30 seconds or so for me go cross the starting mats. The first mile is pretty much all uphill, so I took it easy working my way into the run. I felt good and pushed it in the second mile to make up time for what I lost on the first mile. The 2 major hills on this course are between 2.5 and 3.5 miles and I really tried to make sure I didn't push too hard going up those hills. The next few miles were very solid as I really started to push the pace a bit.

I dealt with minor side stitches throughout the run, but it never kept me from running to my potential. I was ahead of the 1:35 pace group until around 6.5 miles when they finally caught me. I latched on to them and let the pacers lead me from there on. The last major obstacle was from miles 8-10 which was basically a gradual climb with a few steepish parts. I spent a pretty good amount of energy during those 2 miles and really start to feel fatigued at mile 10. The rest of the race was pretty much all downhill. I started to struggle around 11.5 but didn't let myself lower my effort. My last mile was too slow and kept me from getting under 1:35.

Overall, I was quite happy with the run. It was a fairly hilly course, I have been dealing with minor shin splints, and I still was pretty much spot on my goal.

Train run specific more. I was in complete triathlon training mode all year until after Branson 70.3. I basically had 3 weeks to train for this after taking a week of rest.

Had a few bottles of water, a banana, and 2 yogurts. I stretched a little bit and waited for my mom to finish.


Not having enough time to train specifically on running.