Notes
Ran 59:15 to finish 3rd with splits of 5:41, 11:48, 5:58, 6:33, 5:53, 5:51, 5:47, 6:02, 5:41 with half splits of 30:00/29:15. My goal going in was to just break 60:00 but I was nervous because I've only done two 4 mile tempos at 6:00ish pace, so I wasn't sure how I was going to respond to the pace. I started in a big pack for the first couple of miles before Warren Alder started breaking away some. I was in 6th from about 3-4 miles and got passed by Matt Pulle before the big hill. I had a side stitch and died on the hill, which is why I was so slow on the 5th mile. At the halfway, I was in 7th and about 10 seconds behind 6th with the lead pack pulling away. I thought I could catch Matt and Peter Woerner, so I tried to push pretty hard the next few miles. I passed Peter in the 7th or 8th mile and caught Geoffrey Musick about 600m later. When I saw Warren walking up one of the hills, that gave me a big mental boost because I realized I could maybe finish in the top 3. With about 2.5 miles to go, I tried to keep on pushing so I could catch Michael Peters and maybe Matt. I passed Michael with about 1.5 miles to go and didn't have the legs to catch Matt. The last mile I just wanted to finish and be done with the madness.
When I crossed the line, my legs felt like mush and had trouble walking around. This was my first race over 10k and I definitely felt it. I felt like I could have run at least 2-3 more miles at sub 6 pace, but I didn't have the turnover to run any faster. Not a bad race but I definitely have a long way to go. Now I just have to figure out how to run 16.2 more miles at this pace by December...