Boy! I was not ready for this race course. There was definitely a lot of competition at this event that was well trained for the hilly and winding course. I just couldn't hang today. To my credit however, I was suffering from a head cold for over the past three days and I think that may have played a small part in my only able to hold my pace for about 3 miles. After that it was a suffer-fest to hang onto as much of my race pace for as long as I could. It was just a battle of attrition for the remaining 7 miles as my energy level failed and I was getting caught and passed by all kinds of runners. I was just glad to be out there and I never gave into my temptations to take a walk break.

I could have gotten some actual hill training to better prepare for this style of run. Also, if I had my Nike+ Sportband I could have kept better tabs on my pace for the beginning of the race to have a more evened out pace overall and see if I was getting too slow for my proven abilities. It was a surprise to finish and get my avg pace read out. I thought for sure that I'd be around an 8:00 minute mile but I guess I hung onto a respectable pace.

Nothing special. I had only one minor semi calf cramp and I seemed to be ok after just a couple of minutes of recovery.


I was out of my regular training for a while there and certainly my lack of hill training was a huge factor. Especially when you measure my lack of training against the competition at this event. People came to play today and I was not able to keep pace.