Just a little over my goal - I was shooting for 8'30" miles across the board. My finish puts me about a minute and 6 seconds slower than my goal. However, this still is a Personal Best, as my previous time on this same course two years ago was 1 hour, 53 minutes and 37 seconds - So I cut almost a minute off my time. It's nice to see I'm still getting faster (at least in the longer races) even if the improvements are pretty hard-fought. I went from 158th overall down to 145th overall.

Work issues (Snow and EOC activation really messed with my taper). I lost a few long runs due to a short race right before this one - I still need to get my body more comfortable running at an 8:30 pace for longer distances (I did really well until the 6 mile mark).

I kicked it the last few hundred yards, as the was another runner trying to pass me. I dropped him, but in the process REALLY ramped up my heartrate. Warmdown consisted of finding a quiet spot, in case I "lost my lunch". Anyway, everything worked out OK, and just took a few minutes to get my stomach settled down.


I believe this was one of my poorer "mental efforts". For some reason I was not really able to get psyched up for this - and I believe that hurt my speed once I started to get a little tired. I was hoping my brother would be running with me, so we could resurrect the whole "runner vs triathlete" competition we've had going - but he was out of commission by a cold that he can not shake.


Alan, Susan and the Chico Running Club did a fantastic job - the chip timing was a great touch, and really simplified the awards and time-keeping.