Notes
Temps started out cold 37 and 9 mph winds. I think it was between 40-45 degrees at the finish and the wind had died down to 4-5mph. This was nice because the last 5 miles was into the wind.
Everyone loved my race kit. The bright orange shoes were popular and the ladies liked the compression shorts.
‘Joe’ on the bib was nice everyone yelled my name and told me to catch the “Kenyans”. I had to wear SCRC singlet if I was going for an attempt to break Werner’s club record.
The mat for the last 10K split was at mile 20.75 not 20.4.
5.45 miles in 30:36, about a 5:37 pace. I can’t believe I passed Hillary Kogo at mile 24 and he finished 3 and a half minutes behind me. He must have walked up the big hill at mile 25.
My Garmin splits where 15-30 seconds before the mile markers until mile eight or nine when I almost made a wrong turn, then I was exactly a full minute before the mile markers for the remainder of the race.
It really helped to start slow and pick off guys throughout the race. I talked to Matt Fecht #3 after the race, nice guy he ran a 2:21:46 at Chicago and is trying to qualify for the trials. Julius Kosgei #2 – Won the 2009 LR marathon in 2:21. I can’t believe how close 2 and 3 finished. Mark Chepses had an easy win compared to his 2:19/second place finish 2 months ago in Mississippi. I loved the out and back at the end to gauge how far ahead the leaders were.
Great race, southern hospitality! Expo was about the same size as Des Moines. Good crowd support. The hills weren’t bad if you ran conservative. They go all out for the runners, I wish I could have stayed to the post race party (4pm-8pm): Olive Garden and Barbeque. If you do this race sign up for the perks tent, it has giant space heaters to keep warm before the race and more food options right after the race.