About 15 minutes before start, rain and wind picked up. It was a cold rain and not fun at all, feet were soaking. The gun went off. I started out running with the 8.23 pace group which was fine but for some reason I felt like I had no energy from about mile 2 to 4, Jim seemed to think I should have eated something right before the run started, which I know now, I should have. Right around the 5 mile marker I felt like I was in trouble, drank Gatorade and a couple of shot blocks but then I was hit with the hills at the park, crap!. I have done this race at least 8/9 times and never seem prepare for the hills. I saw my pace go down and of course that is not good mentally. By the time I got out of the park, I really tried to pick up the pace for the last mile and half before the turnaround. Right around that time, I started to feel so much better and picked up the pace, passed a lot of people and my pace went back up to about a 8.30, but damage was done and I knew I would not PR but I would beat last year's time, which I did my three minutes. So happy when I turned on the Pete Rose Way, felt like I was going to throw up but the Finish Line was in sight, crossed the line and I was done.

Take some Muscle Milk before start, try running the streets more, we had a lot of rain this year and running on the TM became a habit, need pavement and hills more. Stop Raining!!!!

finished race, prety happy with time and surprise, Jim was waiting for me at the end of the race. I was so happy to see him. He said he got up about 6am and heard all the rain and deceided to come down and see me finish. Very Nice.