I started out running with my wife. Her plan called for a 10 miler today, and she had run 8 the day before. She was game to give it a go, but she had no plans/concerns with a PR. A little over 3 miles in, she told me to go. She was going to walk the hill. I went on and figured I'd catch up to her on future laps. At that point, I saw under 2HR was in reach so I steadied on.

I did not need to drink until about the 6 mile mark. I took a banana at mile 9. Water every other lap from mile 8 on. As I neared the end, I started watching my time more closely. I knew I was on track for under 2HR, however I also could see the course lap was a shade long. While I was on pace to finish at about 1:56, given the course was a bit long, I knew it would be close. I started pushing my pace a bit. On my final lap, my watch notified me I hit the 13 mile mark at about 1:56 and I was only half way through the final lap. I pushed ahead knowing it was going to be very close. As it turns out, I crossed the timing mat almost exactly at 2HR.

Even so, I was quite happy with that. My previous best HM is only something like 2:11 on the back of a 70.3.

Nothing. Ideally, I would have planned and tapered, but I just was using this as a long run training day and just enjoyed the event.

At the finish was one of the water stops. I found gatorade and drank about 20 dixie cupfuls of the stuff. Walked around and let my legs relax. I talked to a few folks and watched for Jamie.

After figuring out our official times (because we registered so late, we were incorrectly entered into the "open/casual" division). Once we got our times, we found out Jamie got 3rd overall women and I won my age group. Ha! We grabbed out medals and headed out. Jamie had to get the kids from school, and I raced back to the office to wrap up a few things.


It was inspiring to see military personal, in full uniform carrying 100+lb packs (in honor of fallen soldiers). Team RWB was there carrying a flag. One woman was running with prosthetic legs. Seeing all of these things was inspiring and really helped to combat any minor fatigue I was feeling.




This was just basically a training run.\





There was a bit of confusion with the timing, and also not much at the "finish". Since there were many races going on at once, I just crossed the finish line and stopped. There was no one there telling me I was done. I knew I was done because of my watch. There was lots of food (sandwiches, chips, water, fruit) but most of it was covered. It wasn't clear what was there for the athletes. I think this was more just a factor of it being a 9 hour race day, with lots of different things going on. Everyone was very helpful and friendly. Just a little bit hectic due to many different races going on at the same time. Overall, I loved it. I definitely want to come back.