I knew with it being a low key race that there weren't going to be a bunch of gunners there, so I figured I wanted to go out in ~6:00 or right off the lead, whichever was slower, as my goal was top 3, not a fast time.

The token MS kids took the first 400 out hard and I was in a pack of about 6-8 the first 800 or so. We were all chatting and bs'ing when I glanced down at my watch and it said like 6:20ish pace (inst) so I put in a small surge to give them the idea that we needed to get moving. I seperated and was in 2nd behind a MS'er that was still on a rocket. about 30m ahead. Around the 1k mark, a another runner came up from the previously mentioned pack after I slowed down a touch and made a move around me. I mimicked it and got right behind his right shoulder and stayed there until we came out of the woods. We started up a hill and I noticed that he was picking up his pace and I knew that I didn't want to push the only hill in the race because the 2nd half was downhill or flat and I wanted as much as I could saved for that. I let him go about 4 or 5 steps ahead and we soon caught the MS'er. Continued up the "hill" to the mile mark at 6:06, being 2 seconds off the leader.

About 20-30 meters after the mile we leveled back out just before a left hand turn. I noticed that the other racer had settled back in to a normal pace. Decided that it was time to make a move, and if I died, well, I haven't run in 3+ weeks :). Surged past him going around the bend and I was off. The 2nd mile was run on the streets of a neighborhood just behind the town hall park, making it FLAT. I just tried to keep a steady effort and keep moving forward. I started hurting a half mile-.6 later and just kept motoring. This mile also takes us to the furthest point away from the finish, hitting that mark exactly at the 2 mile point. Make a left hand turn. 6:01 with a 20-25m lead.

Right after the 2 mile mark there were 2 pretty decent straights, each followed by 90* turns, so I was able to check out my lead. Turned off the road and went back into the park and after a slight jog right, we made a sharp left turn onto the paved trail. Was on that for like 200m when we went into a little loop that was fully wooded. Here is where I made my 2nd big move, I basically sprinted for 15 seconds while I was out of his eye sight to get a larger margin leading into the last half mile. We came out of the woods and had ~.3 to go. I decided it was time to go and I went for it.


I think I ran the best I could have today.

Jogged/walked a mile back out onto the course to cheer.


Lack of training, having not ran a step since the Austin 70.3 almost a month ago.


After finishing, I felt tired, but not exhausted. So it was a good run with pretty smart execution, I knew my limits and stayed within them.

Also, I will update once I find my ANT stick for my 310.