This was a fun race. Chippy and I went up with about 4 car-loads of people from the DC Tri club. Took my warm ups off way too early and froze for a good 30 minutes before the gun went off. My uber-competitive friend Laura went up to the front of the pack to run with the fastish people. She is definitely more of a runner than I am, but I still put us pretty close in ability. I hadn't been running all that much the last couple of weeks so I didn't want to outright challenge her for fear of getting my ass kicked by a 100 lb girl ;) I had it in my head that if I could stay with her and pass her at the finish it would give me something to tease her about for the next year (yes, I am 12 :-) I didn't want to start to close up front because I definitely needed the element of surprise on my side. The gun went off and the first two miles of this thing were up hill. Who's bright idea was that? Still hadn't seen her and figured she was way too far ahead. Then as we got near the turn-around she was only a minute or so ahead of me. She saw me. I pointed at my watch, pointed at her, and gave her that cockey "I've got you" look. In reality, I was running pretty hard and didn't think there was any way I could catch her, especially now that she had seen me. A mile or so later I saw her at a bend in the road and I had closed another 20 seconds. Hmmmm.... So I started stalking- trying to keep out of her sight. Keeping behind people, fences, running directly behind her so that if she glanced she wouldn't see me. If she had kicked it up another notch there was no way I could keep up. At mile 4 I had closed another 20 seconds. I might actually be able to do this. The last 1/4 mile was downhill and I only had another 50 yards to make up. I started my kick and went flying by her with about 25 yards to go. I waved and all I could hear was a really loud "Fuck!" and the sound of footsteps picking up the pace. I finished about 10 feet ahead of her. I am never going to hear the end of this :)

Ooh, and I think this is a new PR.





Nada

Tried not to puke.


Hills, cold, lack of a proper warm-up.