My goal was around 19:30 for this race. Conservative..yes, but last year I did it in 23:05. I remember that hill being almost straight up and down, but when I checked it out before the race, it was smalller than most of the hills I run on near daily basis. Good! At the start, I almost immediately lit the wheels up. The pack quickly thinned out. At the first hit of the hill there were 4 people in front of me. I passed them all going up the hill. After that none of them caught back up to me. After the hill I was suckin' air pretty good, but just kept on with my pace. My breathing settled down soon after the hill and I kept pounding it out. During the second lap I wasnt able to catch anybody else until the very end. At the second hitting of the lap, I was able to gain some on this other guy and finally overcame him at the final sprint to finish. That final sprint was about 1/4 mi and was all I had in me. After the race I looked at my watch for my max pace (the final sprint) - 4:26. Nice! Excellent race and I killed my goal of 19:30, not to mention taking 5 minutes off of my previous years time!

Maybe grab some water on the second loop. I didnt take in any liquids through the whole race. Around the second lap towards the end my mouth was pretty dry.

Caught my breath after the last sprint to finish and stretched. Went back on the course by the top of the hill to wait for Amy and cheer her to the finish.


There was about 320 people running and a lot of good competition. Check out my placing - 13th overall and *6th* in my AG. The 5 people in my AG that were in front of me were in the top 10! A lot of the people there that were in my AG were people that ran track in HS and went on to run track or cross country in college.

Overall the race was very well put together. It took a while for the race results to be posted, but that was alright. With Paperfest going on there also, there was enough stuff to burn time with. Will do it again next year.