Race report

First, I've figured out when you run 7 days a week it's hard to maintain a running blog. It would be really boring.

Saturday was race-day, and even though it didn't go off quite how I wanted, it was still okay. I suppose I should preface this race report with the following: Friday evening I had two margaritas, four beers and stayed out until midnight. Then we got lost on the way up to Huber's. So with the stage set ...

My original pace-setter, Chris, had backed out with a sore hamstring. Another friend, Doug, volunteered Friday evening to help me out if he could. While Doug is a 3:09 marathoner, he hasn't been keying for any particular race, and I'm not sure he was quite race-ready that morning.

So I take off, trying to settle into pace and not trip over anybody. I'm cruising through the first mile, and as we come down the first hill, I can hear the splits being called a hundred meters or so away. They were still in the 5 minutes, at which point I thought, "Oops," and pulled back. Hit the 1-mile in 6:07.

Then we went uphill and I slowed down hoping Doug would pull alongside me and help out. I started to settle into my pace but wasn't quite there. Crossed the 2-mile in 6:50, 30 seconds slow but okay given the first mile (which had been at least 13 seconds fast, if not 18).

The course has enough elevation change that I struggle with finding my pace, and slog through 3 in 7:02. I came through 5k in under 21, which was still alright by me. I don't really know what happened over the next few miles. The 4 was 6:52, then 7:10 at 5, which I believe included the hill from hell.

I did pull it back together with 6:34 for the last mile and 1:15 for the final .2. Unofficially I have 41:50.

I still picked up an age group award, which is a very lovely handcrafted mug still in a friend's possession. I then hustled back and started work ... it was a long day!

I did get to meet Miranda, finally, and wish I had time to hang out that morning and eat fruit!

Sunday was a good 16 miler, during which I averaged 8:09 pace. Today was 70 minutes on trails, fairly easy, so probably just over 8 miles. I followed that with an hour of pilates, an hour of yoga, and some upper-body weights. Whew!