This was a very small race and I started in the front. Even though I was passed by lots of people, it was better to start there. Once we were 6 or 7 minutes into it, no one really passed me again. There were no mile markers, so I had no idea where I was pace-wise. I was listening to a Podrunner program with 178bpm. That cadence was perfect for a quick leg turnover. I tried to focus on the beat and keep my feet moving. It felt a little faster than I'm comfortable with, but not too awful. Around mile 2, I started to feel a little fuzzy, so I slowed down for 5 minutes or so. As soon as I felt better, I picked up the pace again. Once we came back into town, I focused on catching the two girls in front of me. The guy was too far and I couldn't reel him in. I passed the girls with around a half mile left. Of course all distances are estimates. As I turned the last corner for the finish, I noticed that I was going to be close to 30 minutes. That was incentive to kick it up a notch. I rolled on down to the finish with 29:50 on the watch.

I don't think I warmed up enough. Probably another half mile warm-up would have helped. I also need to learn to push through that yucky/fuzzy feeling of mile 2.

Walked, stretched, drank water and OJ. The finish was about 4 blocks from the start and it did me good to walk back to the truck.


Nothing really at this point. I'm pretty happy with that time.