The good news is I followed my plan (to go out much easier than normal, 6:30-6:40 range, and just pick people off as they melt into the pavement), the bad news is that it didn’t result in a “fast” time. I ended up running negative splits (34:22/34:06) to finish in 1:08:28. According to the results, I passed 18 people in the last 3.8 miles while no one passed me.
The negative split looks good on paper, but it should be “the norm” on this course, which is mainly downhill 3 of the last 4 miles. This race has a lot of potential to be a quality event, but there are a few minor annoyances;
5 porta potties for 1,100 runners and about 30-45 minutes to use them.
4 water stops didn’t seem like enough – I’m not counting the one they set up .5 miles from the finish line. WTF? Must have been for the 1 mile walkers.
Inaccurate mile markers. I normally pace myself fairly evenly, so when I see 6:41, 6:29, 6:21, 7:36, 7:15, 7:07, 6:30, 7:05, 6:51 and 6:33, something’s not right.
2.5 miles on gravel road.
Shitty weather.
Okay, okay, I’m just bitter because I paid $30 for a banana and a bottle of water. I can pickup my shirt after August 5th – at a store in the town of the race (30 minutes away).
But overall it was a fun day. I picked Debbie up and we drove to the race together. We saw Aaron and Jim before the start. Debbie was 4th woman overall (first in her age group) in 1:04:57, beating her “arch rival” by 9 seconds. Aaron was right behind her in 1:05:05. Jim ran 1:07:22 and beat both his “arch rivals” to win his age group.
After the race, Debbie and I invited ourselves to Jim’s house. Actually, we drove by because Debbie wanted to see it. Jim was outside so we went in and ended up drinking wine and eating shrimp. So I’ve car pooled with Debbie to 2 races this year and we ended up drinking wine after both of them. Hmm. After dropping her off I realized it was our anniversary. I met Debbie at a road race a year ago this weekend.
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