Notes
We left Columbia with rain, encountered snow on the way, and then it stopped snowing before we arrived in Sedalia. There was snow on the ground, but did not stick to the roads so just wet and slightly slushy in places. Temperature was 32 and there was a brisk wind, I think out of the N-NW. I ran my warm-up and got hot, but whenever I turned into the wind, I would feel cold. I opted to remove the jacket and pants, but kept the 2 shirts, gloves, headband, and wore shorts with an under-layer.
Ideally, I was hoping for around a 6:25 pace and to break my PR of 1:25:05 from last year. With the conditions today, I was waiting to see what happened. Started off close to my pace at 6:28 for the first mile. At this point I was in 4th place and was hoping I could maintain that position. It didn't look like I could catch anyone ahead of me and I had a small lead over those behind me. I could see Tom ahead of me.
I took water at the first aid station but could barely choke any of it down as it felt kind of cold. Really, not a whole lot happened the first half. We were running into the wind at times, had cross-winds, and wind behind us. I took my gel at about 6 miles and had a drink at the turn around. Ryan was out in front, and Tom was in second. Katie was in the lead for first female. Hugh looked like he was running strong too.
After the turn around, I still felt pretty good and the gel felt like it had given me a little boost. I felt strong and the road was in pretty good shape considering the wet and a bit of slush. The worst part of the race was mile 10 when at one point heading straight into the strong wind. It was wearing me down just a bit. I ran that mile in 6:30, my slowest up to that point. Then we turned and finally got out of the wind and I recovered in mile 11.
Mile 12, I started to see if I could pick up the pace a bit and ran 6:18. Continued to pick up a little more and mile 13 in 6:10. Finishing time was 1:23:51, a 1 min 14 sec PR! I finished feeling strong! I placed 2nd in 40 - 45 age group and 4th overall out of 70 runners. Tom was first in my age group and 3rd overall. Ryan and Katie both won overall. Hugh was 3rd in his age group and only a few seconds slower than last year. We all won a glass block. Not a big turnout today due to the weather but could have been much worse weather. Hugh and I had Mazzios for lunch.