Notes
This was a fun one! I'd just been taking it easy since the Bluegrass 10,000 so I didn't have a ton of expectations for this race. It was a bit slower than what I ran a month ago for the Donut Dash, but still not bad at all considering the almost completely lack of speedwork I've done since then.
The evening was pretty hot, but not as hot as recent days and the humidity didn't seem too bad for once. I really expected worse conditions. I started off pretty hard and maintained my Donut Dash pace for the first 1K or so. However, by that point I could tell I my breathing was more labored and I was forced to slowly back off for most of the rest of the race.
Things got fun after the grassy section when I could tell I was reeling in a couple guys ahead of me. One guy was obviously dealing with a stitch. I got right on his heels getting back to the dog park loop, but when he heard me behind him he picked up the pace and stretched out the gap again. We both passed Guy B going up the hill around the far corner of the dog park. However, Guy B wasn't done and passed me back again shortly after. I thought that was going to be the end of it, but I hung in there and had a really fun finish...
Stitch guy really started struggling at the end and I was able to pass him going into the last downhill. I wanted to beat him to the big left hand turn going into the finish area so I could claim the inside lane. At this point, I could feel the race speeding up and could sense other behind me, so I really found another gear hidden somewhere. To my surprise I found I was reeling in Guy B who I thought was already too far in front to realistically catch. So I poured everything into one last sprint and passed him just feet from the finish line. To make it extra satisfying, Guy B was in my age group and passing him got me third place and a fun little Crank & Boom cowbell.
Unfortunately I wouldn't be so lucky next time. I went to find Erin and walk with her as she finished her race. We decided to run to the finish, but she bamboozled me and sprinted off to beat me at the line! Can't win them all I guess...