Notes
GOOD ISH, a lot of fun with the OFBOC team!
CRBR, take two! Despite very threatening weather forecasts, the small amount of rain earlier in the morning let up just in time for a completely dry race! Still humid and a little warm for my liking but can't have it all! Rob and I had a nice shake out at 4:45, and then we all headed out the door at 5:40... got off buses at around 6:15 and made our way to our corral by 6:40, giving us plenty of time to get punkt looking for the second bag check. Much better timing this year, really cut out a lot of stress. Was awesome having Pat, Joey, and Rob there, made for a really fun morning.
I'm happy with it! It's only a slight PR and was one place worse than last year but I think it was a great result overall. Goal was sub 34 (to get an elite bib for next year!), stretch goal of 33:45, so works for me. Just about executed like I wanted to... was pretty happy with my pacing last year overall, so in a perfect world was looking to run the same splits with 10s faster on 3 and 7s faster on 6. Kind of did it... good enough. Got out quick to get out of traffic, then settled into a better pace. Bridge uphill from ~1.7-2.8, then more gradual downhill from 2.8-4.25. Windy on the bridge of course but similar to last year, not terrible. Very surprised to be keeping close contact with Eric Ashton and Brian Johnson... ended up going past them and beating each for the first time so that was cool, but if they're not coming off injuries then they must have had off days. Had a good few people to work with in the last mile, including Mack Johnston who ran the CPC 5k in 15:46... got past him on mi 6 but he barely outkicked me. I think one other guy got past me at the end but otherwise I think I only went forward on the second half.
Once again legs felt like lead at the top of the bridge but knew I'd be able to push on. Was feeling really good on 5 but slowed the pace a bit to save some for 6... ultimately still ran out of gas some but to be fair, the previous two miles were net down so I can't be too critical. Managed to get past Lindsey Sherf at least, but looking at the results, she wasn't top American woman, dang.
Shockingly close to top tri-county resident! Between Chris being injured, off days from Eric and Brian, and Jay MIA (also injured apparently), ended up 3̶r̶d̶ 2nd(!!!) tri-county resident (1st gets $500!) and also 3rd SC resident so that's cool. Seems like the real elite elite fields were bigger this year but not positive (EDIT: 13th USA male vs. 17th last year so not really). Thought there were a lot more people in front of me so I was glad to see 36th place... it's always hard to tell.
EDIT: Brett Morley is from Landrum, not Ladson! I missed $500 by one second to Mack Johnston!!!!!
Officially 17:15/16:41 (compare to 17:27/16:35). Was kind of bummed that my second half wasn't as fast as last year but that doesn't really matter if I got to the finish line faster I guess! Achilles held up but I'm not liking this inflammation... we'll see about going forward.
Lot of fun with the guys, really glad they were able to make it down. Ronnie and her family ran too but we didn't meet up until after. She did well but she doesn't think so! Motivation for next year. Happy with the result, good day.