Notes
Sunny warm and a bit humid, about 75 deg. Went into this race with a mind set to run hard but not kill myself and get overheated. Quite a crew from the Rumford area, Bob, Glen, Jen, Penny, Katie, Jasmine, Steph Nicols. Billy didn’t run due to his knee, so he worked an aid station. Took off just ahead the middle of the pack. Ran pretty fast down the first section, it wasn’t too crowded. Got behind a woman and her 12 year old son, I think it was Chad Allen’s wife. He was running pretty well so I ran behind them for a while then went around. Got in a little train with a couple other guys in front and behind. Pace seemed a little slow, but figured that was ok, it would keep me from getting too hot too fast. The guys in front stopped at the first aid station and I had my pack so I kept going passed them and passed a couple other people just leaving the aid station. Ran a bit harder keeping the pace slightly uncomfortable but not really hard. Caught up to a guy and a woman and ran behind them until the guy tripped and fell. He was ok and I passed them once he got up. The caught back up and ran behind me. At about 40 minutes I had a GU, wasn’t sure if I needed it but didn’t want to fade at the end. Got the second aid station and Billy was handing out water, said a quick Hi and passed a couple people. Then it was the long downhill and flat snowmobile trail. Kept up a pretty fast pace, but not all out because I wanted to hammer the last uphill section to the finish. Got passed by a couple guys, then by the guy who fell and the girl just before the drop to the last climb. Took it easy going down the steep little drop so I wouldn’t fall and then once out of the gully I really picked up the pace. Passed the guy and girl, plus another guy. The hill wasn’t as steep as I remembered and there were some short sections to recover a bit. Passed another guy and had one more a ways ahead of me. Ran hard to the finish but I couldn’t close the gap.
Pretty happy with this race, even though it was my slowest time ever. Felt like I ran consistently hard and not so hard I had to slow down like last year. Steph did great, 3rd woman overall. Glen did great too, won our age group.