Notes
Alliant Energy 8k at 7am in Cedar Rapids. The heat wasn't too bad for me, although it wasn't ideal. I didn't know what to expect about the race on short recovery from the triathlon and basically just signed up since we were going to run that day anyway. Decided to still go out and race and it felt pretty good. My back felt better today. The main group of men took off fast, which I expected since a lot of elites come to this race. I settled into the second pack which I soon realized was the elite women. After about a mile I started to pull away from the pack and could tell a few guys came after me. By mile 2 only one person was still with me and it turned out to be Diane Nukuri-Johnson, the women's leader and Olympian for her home country. She pretty much followed me the rest of the race as we caught some of the men that fell off the front pack. I finally got a little separation in the last mile to beat her by 6 seconds. Two guys were within striking distance in the last 400m, but I couldn't get the motivation to go after them. I ended up being the first finisher from Iowa (19th Overall) and believe that will get my $100 in the mail. Not a bad day.