Notes
A solid effort. Was very weird running without even a watch and having no knowledge of what time I was looking at!
Got out hard the first couple hundred yards to see who wanted to play. 3 people ahead of me -- 1 looked like a contender -- he won by a landslide! One of the others was possible. The last -- not a chance, running ins spikes on the road (spikes removed). Made it easy to know where he was. Made the turn heading to the Cathedral and am in 3rd. 1st place seems to be pulling away. 2nd place has about 30 yards on me. As we make the turn to head back up the hill, first and 2nd are on the rightside of the road -- sorry, I know I left turn is coming and hug the left. First place -- not going to close on him unless he blows up. As we get to the flat at the top of the hill, I close on 2nd to about 20 yards. Make the left onto Western and it's 10 yards. I pass him right around the 1 mile mark and don't look back. Gotta say I didn't like not even getting a mile split -- uncomfortable. So, I just kept running hard. At the turnaround point, grabbed a quick drink and then got on it. Saw Ron shortly and he said I only had 3rd by about 50 meters. Told me I needed to do a 1 mile time trial at that point. I flipped him off! I did pick it up and just did my best to stay right on the redline the rest of the way. A few turns and dodging of other runners who were still outbound and I was at the finish. Ended up beating third by 59 seconds -- that means I put ABOUT 40 seconds on him over the last mile or so. I can live with that!
Good race and confidence booster!!!