Notes
12:59 - 6:30 / mile
12:59 Fast first 2 miles
7:46 Mile 3
20:45 This was not going to be easy, but I hung with the pack
8:15 Mile 4
28:59 After this hill, I got a stomach cramp / gassy side stitch. I was dragging. Mark passed me, Joel passed me.
8:29 Mile 5
37:29 The pain slowed me to a crawl, but by mile 5 it had begun to subside. Dan McNair had passed me and I kept within 50 yards of him while others drifted ahead.
7:23 Mile 6
44:52 I had decided that no one else was going to pass me, and hung with a couple people. Then there was a girl passing us that I decided to respond to. We began to drop people.
6:50 Mile 7
51:41 At some point here, I came upon Joel and blew past him. He returned the favor and we picked up the pace.
7:13 Mile 8
58:55 In the last mile we made real headway and I joined the group ahead of us. I would lose that girl from mile 6, but Joel hung on.
7:02 Mile 9
1:05:56 Then Joel decided we would run the hills very fast. We pushed each other throughout this mile.
7:03 Mile 10
1:12:59 I just dug a little deeper and a little deeper, and found an efficient climbing stride. Sprinted as best I could down and around the parking lot. Passed maybe a dozen people in these last two miles.
After a really rough patch, I'm happy to have pulled it together. I don't seem to warm up now till mile 6 or so. I could crack 1:10 here, no problem. I think the difference is a few Snowstorm classics. I need a few more fast paced runs at 5 to 10 k distance to get my gut used to running fast. This is what got me last year too.
Dan had a really good race. Mark, Craig, Me, and Joel all finished within a minute of each other. Joe Fois ran a personal best, though he's always talking about how he's a 5k 10k guy. Unfortunately Kathy Lynch bagged it after the first hill, complaining about something hurting on the downhill. It would be a shame to see her injured. The first age group they announced was 16 and under. First place fell, of course, to Jason Beaver. The announcer called out his age with great excitement, reached down and said, "This little guy here!" as he lifted Jason up above for all to see. Jason met the crowd with his usual steely contenance, he's got to be a little embarrassed by all of this attention.