Notes
Walked ~1 mile over to the start about 25 minutes before gun time and just did a few minutes of light jogging to loosen up. The weather was pretty much perfect with low humidity and only a moderate breeze. I started close to the front and made my way through minimal traffic to settle in. Most of the first mile was uphill and the grade increased towards towards the top of the hill. I felt pretty comfortable, but I ended up going quite a bit too fast considering the incline. I missed mile marker 2, but my combined 13:09 2 mile split was also too fast despite being downhill. I got a pretty bad side stich right before the first water station. I focused on breathing deeply and I took in a small amount of Gatorade and the stich eventually subsided after about 5 min.
After the water station and the stich subsiding, I decided to slow my pace since I knew it was unsustainable. I fell a bit into the trap of speeding up due to somewhat narrow paths and keeping up with surrounding runners. I noticed I was slightly winded by mile 4 and 5 so that also led me to slow down. I decided to skip the water station between mile 4 and 5 since I unexpectedly used the first one at 2.5 to help with the stich. The pack started to break up quite a bit at this point and I focused on my own pace.
As I made my way to Quarry Hill, slowing my pace allowed me to feel more comfortable. The ~ 7:15 target pace felt pretty easy and allowed me to get my bearings. Unfortunately the hilly and narrow paths caused my effort to go up during this portion of the race. I had to pass a few people on the uphill and this used up some extra energy. I ended up hitting the Gatorade station at mile 9 and drank a bit too much (stopped and drank full cup instead of just sipping while running). This caused me to feel nauseous pretty much for the duration of the race. I also noticed my pace slipped, but this could have been due to starting out too fast as well. All things considered, my legs felt strong through the finish. As I made my way around silver lake, I picked up the effort between mile 11-12. I used the water station at mile 12 to just dump water on my head as not to risk further nausea. I managed to pass one runner the last mile or so, but other than that I was in a pretty big open space. I probably could have pushed harder the last mile, but I didn't want to risk having to stop too early. Instead of a complete kick at the end, I just focused on finishing strong. The twists/turns and concrete did not allow for an all out spring to the finish line.
After the finish I felt pretty bad, but the nausea subsided and I drank 20oz of Gatorade and grabbed a banana. I walked around for about 20 minutes in the finish area before finally walking 1.15 mi back to the house with Jaime. After the race, I was tired but I didn't suffer any major soreness or blisters. If I had paced better on the first 3 miles, I probably could have shaved a minute or so off the final pace. I am still pleased overall with the sub 1:35 goal time.