I started out running with my father in law who happened to be starting back a corral with a friend of his. He is normally a 1:40 guy but this year has a hip and knee issues, which means my speed. He pushed the pace pretty good and actually I ran faster at the start than I would of had I run by myself. This may of caused my last 3 miles to suffer in time a bit but it was very cool to run with someone to start. Felt real good through the first 10K at which point I get to the track. Mitch had to stop to walk and I was on my own the rest of the race. It would of been nice to have him pace me the rest of the way.

The track, to the new runner in the Mini is an attraction. To those who have run the race the track is the worst part of the run. It is hot, even when it isn't hot out. The live bands are gone and it is a long way around 2.5 miles. The one good thing about the track is that once you are off of it the race seems to go by pretty quickly with just over a 4 mile run left.

We expected thunderstorms and lots of rain throughout the race, the rain held off but it was extremely humid and that really effected me by the end of the race. I was ahead of last years pace up through mile 10 and actually thought I might break 1:50 which was my goal. However, unlike last year and the year before, I had nothing left at the end to give me a kick. In the previous two years I have always ran the last 5K my quickest but this year my last 5K was my slowest of the 3 years I have run this event.

This is partly due to the fact I probably started out faster than I should have but not by much and also due to the fact that it was extremely humid and that wore on me and the fact that I only had 1 really long run in training leading up to the race, whereas last year I had 4 10+ mile runs leading up to the race.

I will want to have more long runs leading up to the race. This can be done by keeping my workouts going throughout the fall and not starting in January and building to my long runs.

After crossing the line you are led through a process of getting a water bottle, medal and chip removal. Then you walk and get your goodie bag and fill it with potato chips, cookies, apple, banana ect..and then on to get picture taken. I figured I was a good 20-30 min's ahead of my buddies so I went to the R&R area to wait on Marc, Eric and Joe. Found Mitch (father in law), Marc and Joe but never found Eric after about 2hrs of looking so we went back to the car as a last resort. He was there waiting on us, evidently he didn't look as hard as we did. The only bad thing is I had to skip my post race party at a friends house to get home for my son's game.


Humidity, lack of long runs.


Found out that Purdue has a tent in the R&R area. They were handing out fruit popcicles that were awesome.