Before the race I was debating whether to go out at 8:00 from the start and risk blowing up early or start slightly slower and speed up and see how hard I could go at the finish. Well, the gun went off and I was at the front, being a downhill section to start I was going pretty fast. I kept looking at my watch and seeing numbers in the 6's. I thought I was going to blow up but I kept pushing. Once the first uphill hit I tried to maintain my pace up it and for the remainder of the out and back maintained pacing around 7:45. After the hill I really tried to focus on my breathing. I knew that I would be breathing hard but I just tried to go at a pace that was hard but I could still get my lungs full. This was the best thing I did. I slowed down slightly on the uphill at the end of the out and back but got back to 7:45 pace on the next downhill and held that pace until the last .1 mile when I picked it up again. When I saw the clock at the finish line and it just turned over to 23 I really picked it up again and finished in a dead sprint to beat 24:00

Believe that I can go faster and hold it.

I was totally surprised by seeing 23:xx on the clock as I finished. I thought I would have to work extremely hard both physically and mentally to get to 25 and to run a minute faster was beyond anything I thought I could do. Focusing on my breathing in that first two mile stretch helped me keep from going too fast so that I could make it the whole way. I still maintained a hard pace, but keeping my breathing in check was very important to me finishing strong. I think going in I knew it was going to be a hard race and I would be struggling at the end. Knowing this going in allowed me to push harder than I probably would have mentally and let me go faster physically.