When I saw my first splits, I was worried that I was going out too fast, because my training runs had been closer to 11 min. miles. Consciously really tried to slow myself down. Surprised at how good I felt throughout, so I picked up the pace starting in Mile 7 (as can be seen above -- awesome!). Was waiting for the wheels to fall off, but they never did!
Nutrition worked out fine. I had been training on Powerade only (no gels or chews), so I was a little bit worried about getting enough calories during the race. Not every aid station actually had powerade, but I got some twice (and it was kinda strong). Felt fine nutrition-wise.
Tried to run the tangents, too, and I think I did all right, but it was a little tough weaving around all the people.
Saw Matt a BUNCH of times, which was super for my morale and really helped me feel great throughout.

I think Team Ortho could stand to learn from a few things that happened this race, but I am confident that they will. I had a great race, and I feel more confident with my running abilities now. In the future, I'll do more speedwork and keep learning about my pace, but I think that I gave it what I could today, and I feel great about it being my first race of that distance.

Walked around, grabbed some food, found Matt (awesome). Put on more clothes, walked back to the car, stretched, ate more, showered, napped :-).


Current fitness level, but I'll work on improving that.


I think that Team Ortho could make some improvements to this race. There were a TON of people, and I don't think they were quite prepared to handle everyone. I heard bad things about the shuttles and having enough post-race stuff. I think that they will learn from it for next year, though.