My goal was hold 5 min/km and consider picking up the pace at the 10 or 15 km mark if it felt like I could go faster. I knew at the 10 km mark that I was holding the right pace and from the 15 km mark, I did my best to hang on. I was also using my HRM and trying to keep my HR up around 150. If I saw it dropping off, I cranked up the pace a little (usually a slight down or a flat).

From a race execution perspective I would not do anything differently.

Ha. Picked up one of the blankets they were giving everyone and got in the long line to wait for a bus back to the start. This was the only thing that they really screwed up on. They should have had more buses at the finish sooner. The lines got really long and I guess most people ended up waiting anywhere from 30-50 minutes. It was cold and windy. The blankets were giveaways from the sponsor and they did help a lot.


I need to do more long runs in the 15-20 km range, i.e., once a week rather than the total 6 or 7 I've done in the last year or so. I also need to step up my weekly mileage. My leg muscles and joints are really the limiters - and they hurt like heck right now.


This was the first event for the race organizers and I think they did a great job considering the location. The town is not that big and the parking had to be at a separate location. Although it was nice to take the course down to the lake, I think they would have been better off coming up with a loop that brought the race back to the start point. It was a real pain in the butt standing around in 12 degrees C waiting 40 minutes for a bus.