Last year I was way too far back in the coral and had a lot of traffic to get through. They had an area in the front for those of us with "preferred start" on our bibs. Not sure if they based that on previous years times or what but it worked and had me start in a good spot.
Started down Lombardi ave took a left and Holy Wind Batman! No surprise but still sucked. The way the course is laid out it was mostly a cross wind but very strong. I decided to push from the start and see what was left for the last 5k. A couple of weeks age I did Oshkosh with a chest cold and really suffered at the end coming in in about 1:43 so I wanted to see if it was my conditioning or other factors.
I have always wanted to break the 1:35 mark but just can't quite do it. I think I would need to focus just on run to make that happen but I am getting closer.
Race was uneventful and I was pleased with the effort but was dreading the last few miles but to my surprise I felt great and mile 11 was one of my fastest of the day! I started to do the math but the last 1.5 miles had a lot of headwind that made my goal impossible.
As I came to the finish I heard footsteps and a gal passed me at the line. We had gone back and forth a few times in the last 6 miles. When I congratulated her on a great finish she told me she needed to break 1:37 to get into a race in New York so that was awesome.

Nothing, I was happy to set a PR.

Looked for Mary and Nick but they were not around so after about 10 minutes I got a massage as there was no line at all, then found Mary. Had a beer and brat and headed back to the hotel so they could get the breakfast and I would have time to shower before heading home.


I have always liked this race. It is huge but very well run and if you seed yourself right it does not feel crouded at all after the first mile. Always lots of aid and water stations with tons of help. And as I said nice and flat just the way I like my runs.