Notes
Was hoping to be faster on my leg today than I was, but it worked out ok. We wound up winning the Race, but it was not as easy as it seemed on paper. I was in the top ten at my handoff, but the race was not smooth at all. I took off on the first mile in 5:45. I figured if I could just keep that pace the whole way I would be good. The first two miles I immediately knew it was going to be tough. It was really cold out and my legs were stiff the entire run. I was 17:40 through three miles and already hurting pretty bad. I couldnt make up any ground on anyone at all. Mile 4 was a 5:56, and just hanging on for dear life. Then I got a side stich! My right side tightened up and I was crawling. Did the nose breathing and it started to go away in the last 800 or so. 6:00 for mile 5 and then tried to kick at least a bit. 2:19 for the last .4. I knew the team would need to step up big to make up the time and Scott McGrath was ready to start it off on the second leg. He averaged 5:05 or so for his leg and put us from 7th ish up to 3rd on his leg. Then it was off to Ruben Sanca for his 2.5 mile leg and he told me right before he left that he was real sore from running a 4:14 mile and 8:14 3k the day before, but he wound up running a 4:47 last mile of his leg and we were in second at that point. Then off to Nick Karlwoski for the 9.5 and he hammered it! We went from about 1:20 down to almost two mins up on his leg. Then the mess up. Jose was supposed to be ready at the line and waiting for Nick when he came in, but as I see Nick coming Jose is nowhere in sight. I start screaming JOSE! and everyone is like what the heck just happened. Jose is back at the car trying to get his shoes on, but I ran over and screamed at him to get to the line because NIck was already there! After 40 seconds of lost time Jose was off in trainers and warmup pants. He wound up holding off Ryan Gough from Lowell Road RUnners by 20 seconds or so. If we had lost I would have been so mad! BUt all is well that ends well. So we finally won! Great team effort. I really do plan on taking off almost three mins for next year. Knee feels good today as I write this, but right achillis and calf are toast. Either way it was worth it.