Woke up at 3:15 this morning to drive up to Logan for the race. Arrived with plenty of extra time so as I was dinking around I turned on my Garmin to get the GPS connection and it was dead. Don't you hate when that happens? I realized my charger was in my car so I took the charger on the bus with the hope of finding an outlet in the park at the start. Sure enough, there was a light pole with an outlet. Problem solved. I can hear those watch hater people cursing.....hey, I like my watch and I have some degree of OCD :)
As for the race, I figured sub 1:10 would be a decent goal considering I have been running a pathetically low number of miles (now two weeks in a row over 50 miles!) After getting my watch charged up I ran into Nate Krah so I warmed up about a mile with him. We got to the start line and sized up the competition, i.e. Riley, Ben, Jason, Ken, David (steeplechase guy from Weber), Benjamin Pachev, and a few others I didn't recognize. The two no shows were Anthony and Bryant.
The race started on time and very quickly Riley and Jason got off the front with Ben not far behind That left me in a pack with Nate, Benjamin and David. We ran together for the first few then I slowly surged ahead to catch up with Ben. From there I think Benjamin and Nate dropped back and then after a couple more miles Ben dropped off a bit. Once we hit the flat David took off and then Ben caught me at about mile 9. He was about 15 seconds ahead of me for the next three miles then I slowly passed him on the hill at mile 12. That lead was short lived as he quickly passed me as we rounded the corner for the last mile. I stuck behind him for the first quarter mile but didn't have it in me to keep up. He ran a smart race considering he dropped off a bit early then was able to surge back up at the end.
I finished in 1:08:47, 7 seconds behind Ben, and 47 seconds slower than last year. I still felt good about the race and it was the first time this year that I felt somewhat strong throughout. Oh, and I beat the kid in Crocs for the first time this year. I think the liquid iron I am taking is helping a bunch. At this point I think if I can get in a few quality 20 mile long runs before STG I can salvage a decent race. I think I can....
Great job to Riley, Jason, David, and Ben. Riley was in a league of his own today running a 1:06:03.
Splits: 5:04, 5:12, 5:14, 5:14, 5:04, 5:03, 5:05, 5:16, 5:20, 5:17, 5:26, 5:37, 5:18
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