Notes
Living History Farms race. I felt much better prior to this race than Governors and also knew I was more focused on the race than I was last year. So we got out quickly but definitely not as fast as last year, and I was able to easily move up to the front pack. As I eased toward the front I actually started to think this seemed too easy and I was wondering if I should just go to the front. But that seemed foolish when I was only 1 mile in to a 7 mile run. So I sat and sure enough the pace started to slowly pick up. Charlie Paul set the pace and strung out the pack. I felt good hanging on the second pack but soon that broke up again. So around 2-3 miles it was Charlie up front, Jaskowiak and another guy in second, and then myself and a couple others in the 3rd pack. It basically stayed this way the rest of the race. I went to the front of my pack for a mile or so and then another guy and I started going back and forth and we pulled away from the rest of the pack.
When we reached the trail section I was pretty excited because I thought it would be an advantage for me. It really wasn't though. I think on normal trails with gradual ups or downs or stuff to jump and streams to cross, I was fine. But these trails had a lot of steep ups and downs. The climbs put so much burn into my quads that I really couldn't turn it back over very quickly. So I ended up losing the guy I was with around mile 5 I think. He actually ended up catching the 2 guys ahead so I wish I would have fought a little harder but o well. Another guy was probably 15-30 seconds behind the last couple miles of the race and I had to fight to hold him off during the last mile.
Overall I'm really happy with a 5th place finish. I didn't recognize as many names as last year so I'm not sure if the race was quite as deep or if I just don't know that many of the guys but either way 5th is solid. This was probably the best I have felt racing in quite a while and I felt really comfortable through the first few miles of quicker road racing. After the race is over I feel like I should have been able to be closer to at least 2nd place but I have to remember that I haven't exactly been crushing the miles for the last few months. My toe felt pretty good too so hopefully I can build on this for track season. It was fun to compete up toward the front of a big race again and I'm looking forward to doing this race again in the future.