Notes
Living History Farms Race. I've gone back and forth on what I think about this race. I finished further back than last year and definitely felt worse in the first couple of miles. I also ran about a minute slower than last year. That being said, the conditions were much worse than last year as well. It rained a lot the night before so it was muddy and the stream crossings were deeper. Due to the conditions, I wore spikes this year, which was helpful for everything other than the stream crossings. With flats I was able to quickly hop across rocks and stay pretty dry but that doesn't work with spikes. This led to me feeling I was in a lot more water this year and trying to get my legs going after they were numb from a water crossing.
The first few miles of the race I was really fighting some of the back and breathing issues that have been giving me problems this year. I was really just focused on keeping that under control while just maintaining a decent pace. I was afraid that was going to turn into another survival run like All American, but around the 3 mile mark I finally got rid of the issues and switched more to race mode. I moved up really well the rest of the way and caught 5-10 people in second half of the race.
Overall I think I'm happy with the race. I know that I should be since it is far better than most of my season and really wasn't that much slower than last year considering the conditions. But going from 5th to 12th also hurts a little. I really wish I could have felt better during the first few miles and really raced the entire thing, but I also think the field was better than last year and I don't have any control over that. Considering how bad my summer and fall have been, ,running these two races the last couple of weeks really has salvaged the season and given me confidence I can still run fast.