I went into this race with the goal of breaking 2:30. I barely pulled it off, although it took more effort than I would have liked. At the start line I only recognized BJ (not easy to miss) and Steve Anderson and a couple minutes before the race Jeff (jtshad) introduced himself to me. Except for them I really had no idea what other competition would show up. The race got off on time and I soon found myself trailing only BJ, who got off to a blazing, sub 5 minute start. I have no idea how he ran so fast, considering that he did a sub 10 hour Ironman two weeks ago. Compared to last year I was doing well through the first few miles but I still felt that those mid 5 min miles were taking too much effort. I backed off slightly at around mile 5 because nobody was around me and I knew I needed to conserve more if I was ever going to hang on at the end. After I got out the canyon I started to got into a decent rhythm and by mile 10 I passed BJ's relay partner. Now I was all alone in front and solely responsible for blocking at least 20 cars who were stuck behind the pace car. I got through the half way point in about 1:13, about 1 minute faster than I had expected. I was feeling fairly relaxed at that point so it seemed very realistic that I could run a sub 1:17 second half and get under 2:30. My optimism lasted until I had to climb that hill at mile 14.5. I tried to hold back but I still think I ended up pushing too hard because my legs never felt the same. A relay runner caught me at the dam, fortunately he was only a relay runner. After the dam is where I was planning to put in some fast miles to make up to foreseeable breakdown at mile 23. I managed close to 5:40s from 18-23 which basically left me having to run around 6s to get sub 2:30. Somewhere in there I passed Allie at an aid station. Thanks for the cheer and I apologize for not taking your water or giving a high five. It was one of those, "oh sh**, I have five miles left" moments. Fortunately I survived those last 3 miles which included a few tunnels, dodging and weaving through runners, and 2 foot rollers that felt like hill sprints. Overall I felt good about the race and I was especially happy that I didn't finish in 2:30:01. My Garmin was obviously on the fritz during the first few miles. I promise I didn't run a 5:57 first mile.
| 
