I basically ran this to pace Melanie under 2 hours - and she pushed me!!! She EASILY went 1:55 and we stuck to our plan very well. It was a great training day for me and I was happy with how I felt and how I ran. It can be toug to hold your form in the hills, and even in the flats after all of the up and down but I think I stayed neat. Felt great anyway and Melanie stuck with me and pushed her pace WAY faster than she thought she could :) It was SO fun to race with someone else - I've never really done that. I did pull away on the last mile, but other than that I stayed either right beside her or occasionally a few steps in front of her.

Nothing - smile more?!

Walked to the corner and back had a beer.


Just the fact that this was a training day and I've been working really hard this week.


I loved the course - hilly is right up my alley - but there were only drink stations at 2.5, 5.5, 8.5, and 11.5 - not enough in my opinion. and at the aid stations, they advertised Heed, but there was typically only ONE person with Heed and only 3-4 others with water so we had to almost stop to get our own off the table at some stations. And they could have had a gel on the course at one of the aid stations. Other than that it was great - and I got a HUGE BEER at the finishline as a finisher's gift :)