Notes
1:06:19, 6th ($500). Absolute shit show this morning. Rained cats and dogs with the occasional flashes of lightning, and according to the radar it wasn’t going anywhere. No delays as the buses pulled up so Tyler Morse and I warmed up together in the downpour. Having someone there to chat with helped keep me relaxed. After a few solid strides and not seeing anymore lightning, I was ready to go. Then they told us it would be a 30-60 min delay because the rest of the buses carrying the main field were running behind so I went for another couple miles to stay loose. I wasn’t worried about starting the race tired because of my affinity towards mileage. Race finally started and I took off like a shot, or at least that’s the way it felt. We were running into an 18-20mph headwind and the hard rain stung any exposed skin. After a slow opening mile of 5:23 I bombed downhill to get back on the pack at mile 2. It didn’t last long as Paul Yak took off to chase ben sa there who was making a bid to get the leaders and then bam. Hit the headwind again from 3 to 4. Tyler passed me during that stretch, probably because I was hardly running under 6:00 pace into the gale. No idea what the gusts were but they were devistating. Finally broke out of it around 5 and looked ahead to get Morse but the gap wasn’t shrinking. There were a few long climbs in the middle of the race that killed the pace but didn’t put Tyler out of reach any more than he was. Paul, Tyler and I maintained a 15-30” gap between the three of us. In the later parts of the race I tried to turnover to close the deficit but weak legs kept it from happening and in full disclosure after a half dozen pushes to close it, but mile 11 I said screw it im getting 6th, let’s just end this already. 4th was 1:05:30, 5th was 1:06:00 and I was 1:06:19. With the conditions time was irrelevant, I was fighting for place and just didn’t have it today. Should still set me up well for Grandmas in two weeks though on the virtue that the last 3-4 weeks since Pittsburgh have been strong.