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Notes

10 mile warm up (1:09:38)

10K Cliff Runner (40:37)

4 mile cool down (29:33)

Had a rough time sleeping the night before--like every other race. At 6AM I laid in bed listening to the rain roll down the downspout, and I just hoped that it would be too muddy. Thankfully, it was a light rain, and it didn't last long. I got up at 7, ate two pieces of italian bread toasted with butter, and went through the routine of getting ready. I looked out the window as I was getting the kids up, and there was a rainbow that appeared to be ending right at the finish line. At 8, I went and got my number and shirt (Beth's too). The weather was nice. The heat had broken, and the humidity wasn't terrible.

I started my "warm up" at 8:35. If I ran that 10 mile warm up in 1:15, that means I would still have 10 minutes to stretch a little and put on my flats before getting to the starting line.

I ran State Park Rd 8. Like all other warm ups, my legs and stomach were tight...for the first three miles. Then, suddenly, I forgot about warming up and started treating the run like a regular easy run. Things loosened up from there. Got home at the 8th mile and took a quick potty break. Ran two miles to the start line, while slipping on my race shirt and number and flats that were in Beth's car just outside of the park.

Good news was that the warm up was done at sub 7:00 pace. That was the plan. Except, now I was waiting around for a little extra before the start of the race. I hated that because I felt like I was losing the benefit of a long run by waiting 15 mins for the start. Oh, well.

At the start line, I looked around for other runners that might give me "trouble". I didn't see many except for two guys in Purdue Running Club singlets. As we started, they went to the front and I stayed back at a comfortable pace knowing that the first big hill came up in about 400m. They put a little gap on me going up the hill and at that point I was in 4th or so. At the top I got my legs back together and I started to try to close the gap. I caught them and I just hung on for a little. I was running behind them and I felt fairly comfortable which I hadn't expected. I thought about just taking off, but I held back to see how things would go.

As I was running behind them, I started to realize I was going to beat these guys. They didn't have the lean definition of runners--at least, not runners that are in great shape. So we came to the stairs and started heading down the hill. The guy with the hat wasn't ready for it--he was too cautious. The blonde guy went for it and I went after him, "steepled" the big rock on the way down and that was the last I saw of the guy with the hat.

The blonde was pretty good on the downhill and the trails down to the lake. He kept a gap on me until we started back along the lake. I worked up to him just as we were getting ready to head back up the railroad ties hill. This would be the test.

He started walking up the hill, taking big steps, and I was "running", but I wasn't catching him or going by. My short, choppy steps eventually lost some distance on him again. While we were going up, I was close enough to hear his breathing. He was laboring...a lot. Despite that he went to the top, up the stairs, and he had a little gap again while we both tried to recover our legs on the flat.

Again, I slowly closed the gap, but then we hit the single track, so I was a couple of meters behind him to see where I could step. I stayed close knowing that I would have to make a break before we went back down again because he seemed to do well on the downhill.

We turned onto multi-track, closed the gap, and that's when I made my decision. I could see a big mud puddle in the middle of the trail. I knew he would be thinking about that puddle and which side of the trail he should run on, so I guessed I would surprise him. He went to the right, and I went to the left and started hammering. For a few strides he tried to stay with me, but I kept going. I ran hard. I came upon Beth going the other way. I yelled to her to give me the distance I had on him. She said it was 20 feet! 20 feet?! I had just put in a huge surge, and I only had 20 feet on him? (Later, she would say she was surprised by me, and really it was probably 40 meters. Ha!) It didn't matter what she said, I was running scared. He was (I thought) close, and he was good on the downhill coming up. I kept going hard, and I'm sure the racers heading in the opposite direction could see it in my face. It didn't look pretty, I'm guessing.

I got to the stairsband started heading down against the crowds coming up. I had a couple of close with runners coming up the hill, but I "steepled" the big rock on the downhill, and I turned towards the finish line. I could see my chaser out of the corner of my eye, but I knew he wasn't going to get me, if I could keep hammering away. I ran hard to the finish line, and I was feeling it. Going up a couple of the hills in the last mile, I'm pretty sure I looked like Professor Farnsworth when his back is bent at a right angle.

I got down to the lower trail without twisting anything, hurdled the tree trunk in the middle of the trail and made it to the finish. I'm not sure how far behind me the blonde guy was because I have yet to see the results, but the entire gap was put on in the last 1.5 miles.

Then I had four miles to cool down.