Started about 6 deep off the front line. I wasn't feeling overly confident here today, but at the same time, I didn't feel bad either. The start was anticlimatic, as the race director just counted down from 10 and yelled GO, which for a race with 13,000+ people is kinda lame. But off we went. I settled in to a pace I felt comfortable with for a race, which was around 5:50ish for the first mile. I needed to be no worse than a 6:16 by the end to make sure I was under 40 minutes, which has been my goal for the last few years. The first mile runs through the streets of Cincinnati, which has some hills. By mile 2, I was still in the high 5s, but I wasn't feeling particularly fast or strong, in fact, it felt like a little bit of a push to keep this pace, but I wasn't overdoing it. As we were coming to mile 3 and going over the bridge into KY, I knew this wasn't going to be a easy race...if there is such a thing. The hill on the bridge took more out of me than I thought it should have, and when I hit the downhill side, I pushed a little to try to make up for the uphill half. Now we were in the streets of Newport, and I tried to stay light on my feet, but it didn't take long to feel the struggle returning. On I went, over the little bridge into Covington, which again took more out of me than I thought it should, but at the same time, I tried to pick up the next 3/4 mile on the other side to make up for it. From mile 3 on, my splits were getting slower, and my average pace was creeping into the low 6's. When I hit the middle of the bridge going back into Cincinnati, my average was 6:15, so it was time to pour on whatever I had left. I had to stay at or better than 6:16. At the end of the bridge, we turned right and on to flat ground. I tried to pick up my pace and hold on, which seemed to work. We ran parallel to the finish line street for about a third of a mile, made two right turns, hit the 6 mile mark and hit the straight away to the finish line. I kept checking my watch as it approached 39 minutes....then beyond. I knew I had sub 40 in the bag..but not by much. I held a good pace to the finish line and finished. WOW, that wasn't easy, but I got my goal.

Nothing. I had just come off training for my 50 mile Ultra, and now I'm training for my 100. I had just thrown in about 3 weeks of speed training in hopes of being able to achieve my sub 40 time in this race, and somehow it worked. I was very skeptical if all of this slow training for the last few months would destroy my ability to pull of this race, but somewhere down deep, I found the way. I had to use more mental toughness than physical this time, but whatever it takes I guess. Goal achieved.

Found Mary and the kids, oh, and the stupid dog, and walked back to the car.


Ultra training, but still, nothing to sneeze at.


IT's a big...OLD ....race, and it's hard to do special little things to make it overly awesome....it's good. No chocolate milk truck this year. For as big as this is, they could do better.