I was not racing for myself for this race. I was trying to help Trigirl10 break 30:00.

The first 1/4 mile of this race is just awful. They have a HUGE crowd, I think this race had 200-275 runners. The first 100 yards goes from a wide start to a 8 foot wide path. That area is a bottle neck, and there are all sorts of runners that start in front that really should start farther back. This race was no exception. I spend 30 seconds or more waiting for the path to clear.

I was planning on running the whole race with my daughter, but lost her in the first 1/4 mile. I kept running and hit the 1 mile mark about when I wanted to for the pace I was trying to set. Trigirl10 showed up somewhere about 30-40 seconds later. I stood there waiting on her, when she came along I was encouraging her to keep up with me. This course has a great deal of tree cover, so the Garmin is pretty useless to track distance. I was using it to track HR and time.

We kept a pretty good pace for the second mile, I think we were behind about the same distance there as at the first. That means the second mile was at the right pace, but I am not sure. When we hit the second mile I knew we would have to really pick it up to make 30:00.

The third mile I was keeping a steady pace, and maybe trying to push it a little. Trigirl10 was getting a little thristy, and tired. We kept moving together until about 2.5 miles, when she basically faded. I thought about slowing down, and likely did a little. When I looked around and saw her back 100 yards, I figured there was no way she was going to hit the 30:00 mark. I when ahead and sped up, passing several people that were in front of me. If I had not waited, I could have broken the 30 mark myself. As it was I pushed through the end, and finished with 30:21.

There were 2 drink stations, the first at just over 1 mile had 2 people at it. They handed out water and/or gatorade. The second station was not manned, and by the time we hit it all the prefilled cups were used. We had to wait while another runner filled a cup, and then Trigirl10 got a cup and partly filled it. (I skipped drinking here, and it was not problem) It was the only bad part of the race, just not enough help to man that station.

I would have tried a little harder to encourage Trigirl10 to pick up the pace. This is a trail run, but of the runs this one is pretty flat. Other than the first 200 yards cattle gate start, it is a pretty nice race.

I really was not worried about my time, and I was not pushing to beat anyone. Trigirl10 finished less than 60 seconds after me 31:12 I think, so she had a pretty good run at it.

Walking around talking with people and getting some sports drink and cookies.


Waiting on Trigirl10, but that was the plan.


Great mid week race. They chip timed it and actually ran out of chips.