Notes
Not what I was shooting for time wise, but the effort was certainly there! The whole plan was to get through 10 miles faster than Jones 10 mile and then just try to hang on for a decent time. I figured at best I would be around 1:11:30 and at worst 1:15:00. Here were the splits: 5:16, 5:35, 5:40 (16:32), 5:51, 5:22, (27:46), 5:33, 5:29, 5:40, 5:35, 5:45 (55:51), 6:05, 6:15, 6:01, :54... The first mile was fast, but I felt smooth and was with this group that I wanted to be with so I did not worry. I was breathing fine and feeling good. Mile two and three had some hills in them, but was hanging and feeling ok overall. Mile 4 was still a bit hilly and slowed us with some wind as well. Mile five was downhill and not too windy and I got the pace back on track. This is where I lost Frazioli and Loui and needed a new group. I went through five just about on pace though, so I was not too bad off. 6, 7, 8, and 9 were all just trying to hang on to pace. I took my untapped maple pack at 7 to try and get me going a little, but I could feel my legs tightening up. I pushed to get through 10 in 55:51 and beat my Jones time, but immediately hit the wind and lost the pace. My legs started to rig up so hard that I was not sure I was going to make it to the end. It is the worst feeling in the world when your cardio and your mind are telling your legs to get moving and they just physically can not respond. Dechilles and Princic went by me in the last two miles to drop me back to 8th on the team, and there was nothing I could do at that point. I got up the hill during mile 12/13 and even with the downhill and flat finish, my legs were jello. Like I said on my Facebook post, I am not disappointed with my effort today as I know I gave it all that my body was willing to give, but I was not happy that I could not help my team. That is what matters most to me. My legs just did not have enough miles in them to support that pace for 13 miles. 10 for sure, but not 13. Either way, this should be a great building block for some more races coming up and our team wound up 4th overall which wont kill us in the standings. I was 69th place out of 2390 runners.