This was my first race back after the Chicago Marathon letdown. I finally felt like I was healthy. I was shooting for 6:26 pace or to finish under 60 minutes. There were lots of people there and like all other races, I was very intimidated. The 15km runners started with the 5km racers; this type of start stinks!
I started out slow for 1.5 miles, which was all part of my plan. Then I passed Brad and 10 others before mile 2. Then passed another runner at about mile 2.5, and another at 7. Brad and Russ ran close behind me for the rest of the race, but I was able to hold them off. I had some head games but I held them off. I think that the mental defeat at Chicago was still lingering in my head. I did not use gu at all. Only took 1 gulp of gatorade and never walked. This course had lots of concrete and 1 slight hill other than that it was flat.
I finished at 58:59 and was 11th of 400 total runners and was 3th in M30-34. Great PR!!!!!
This was kind of a goodbye race for me as I was moving to Huntsville, AL in just a few days. It was tough to leave this great group of friendly runners, but it was a good move.
Splits
(307+312)=6:19
(311+310)=6:21
(307+310)=6:17
(307+315)=6:22
(317+315)=6:32
(316+312)=6:28
(314+316)=6:30
(312+313)=6:25
(300+300)=6:00
1:38