Notes
The weather was good, I was feeling pretty good, and the course, excepting the big hill at miles 9-10, was decently fast. The really fast guys from Kenya/Ethiopia didn't show up this year for whatever reason, making me a lot more competitive in this race. The race started and shortly narrowed to a pack of about 5 of us at the lead without anybody too far behind. I could tell that people were trying to stay with the pack because if they fell off, the would be running in no-man's land.
Inevitably, people did start falling off the back until it was just me and the eventual winner (age: 49!). It was all I could do stay with him but between miles 6-8 and just started pulling away and there wasn't a whole lot I could do about it. I managed to reel him back in a little bit going up the big hill but I wasn't nearly strong enough and he had built up too much of a lead for it to really matter. Then he just took off on the big downhill (see mile run at 5:21!) and I didn't really see him much except on long straight-aways.
Overall, I'm happy with the way I raced. I stayed in contention for as long as possible but the other guy was just better. I don't think I could have run much faster on this course, if at all, if I had run some of the middle miles less aggressively; I was letting the other guy do most of the work.
I didn't end up with a finisher's medal and they didn't give trophies or anything to the top-3 but that's just the way I like it: no medals, no trophies, just straight up cash money.
Actually, it was a check for $100.