I started to the far left at the front. Once the race got under way I dropped to the right. The guy standing next to me made a joke at the start and I tried to stay with him for alittle. He quickly pulled away. (Turns out he won the clydesdale 200+ group).
3:00 my breathing becomes more labored and I start feeling like I'm really struggling. Well my longest tempo is usually around this time, so it must just be my body adapting to the pace. A little longer, and I start thinking that I may have started out too fast as people begin dropping me left and right. 6:24 first mile done! Holy crap! I wanted to run the first mile in 7:00 and descend from there.
10:00 wheels come off. Just focused on keeping my head up and elbows back (thanks Mike Ricci for that one) and my stride short. Breath in through the nose and out through the mouth. Hit Stewart Ave. and waiting for the mile 2 marker. Finally, 14:00 two miles down. My pace dropped a full minute plus as I grabbed some water and thanked the little girl who was working the table.
Turn onto South Oyster bay road for the last leg. The humidity is getting to me, thank you summer. I feel like I'm going to vomit. I try to push harder at mile 3 but I could tell my body wouldn't do it. Turn into parking lot and I'm backing off my pace. I really didn't want to vomit in the finishing shoot. I finish, grab a water bottle and go off to the side. I dry heaved alittle, probably sounded like a Yak dying.

Pacing, pacing, pacing. Start slower and I feel that my heart rate monitor would have greatly helped me keep my pace. The plan was 7:00, 6:50, 6:50 for the last 1.1. Not 6:24, 7:40, 8:40.

Walked around, trying not to dry heave. Cooled down with water and finally grabbed some to drink. Had two bananas, two bagels and checked the race results. Knew I medaled, so I hung around for the raffle, got a massage had a cliff bar, the rest of my gatorade and some more water. I didn't with the TV that was raffled off. Bummer.


Pacing. The humidity didn't help either, but really if I paced correctly, I may have been able to break 21. Live and learn.


Good race. Turns out the running club based in my home town is huge. About 400-500 members. Crasy. I had my BT tattoo, but no one asked about it. I also used my race belt, which worked well. Overall, good race, not counting the racing part. ;)