Notes
I am pretty happy with this race. A very controlled effort as I was working with Doug and Anthony for at least the first half of the race. From the start, had a nice group of 6 working together. Just running comfortably and trying to help Doug.
After the first time through Puke's Peak. A couple of our group decided to venture out on their own. I could see that
Anthony was torn, so I told him to get up on their shoulder and he did. At that point, I was in 7th place overall with three of them pulling away and the first place woman (Stephanie Price) kind of in between. Doug was a bit back, but still in touch. I wasn't sure if I should get up there with the three on the breakaway or stay with Doug. So, I stuck in no man's land. It was kind of fun being a bit back and watching Anthony joust it out with the other two guys. On the downhill before we headed out for the second loop, I let gravity do it's thing and moved into 6th place. I could see the others up ahead of me, but was trying not to push too hard so that Doug could still see me to chase. At this point, just trying to stay relaxed and run the course (relax a bit on the uphills and take advantage of the uphills).
Anthony and another were battling it out at this point and 5th place was in no man's land ahead of me. I thought he was out of reach, but kept my eyes on him and kept closing the ground. Finally caught him going up Dominick hill the last time. Pulled slightly ahead and then decided to relax a bit and save some for the end. When we made the right to head for the finish, he had me by a bit and I thought of just letting him go. Nah, let's get up even with him. Then, the only question was when to go. I kept waiting until I thought that there was around 200 to go and then I started to surge. I looked down at one point and saw around 5:40 on the watch. Looking at the final split, I must have really surged. Ended up beating him by one second according to the official results. :) I think there might be a picture of the finish...
All in all, very happy with this effort. Very controlled, yet still within 35 seconds of my course PR. Dilly Dilly!