Notes
Don't know where to start with this one. Main goal going in was to run hard on tired legs. I had been racing a bit much and didn�t want to taper for it. Kinda my real goal was to run a time that would put me in the top 25 based on the results from last year (1:26:09). Funny that was exactly my time. Crazy.<br><br>Wanted to start out at 6:40, 6:35, then settle at 6:30. It didn�t help starting on a track. Looked down at my watch as I was just about to leave the track and saw a 5:45. Oops. That was pretty stupid. Then on the way out I was trying to slow down but some woman had a religious, pro-life shirt on and that made me angry. Religion and politics have no place in a race.<br><br>Thought the course was going to be flat, oops, was wrong there. It was fairly bumpy through the first 10k. I just couldn�t get into any rhythm the first part of the race. Nothing was feeling good and actually thought about dropping at mile 5 or so. I figured I was going to run over 1:30 at this point.<br><br>I was just keeping pace with this one guy. Was nice that I was able to not think about how crappy I was feeling. Then about mile 6, I saw my Sioux Falls friend and she cheered for me a bit and at that point I started to feel better and was getting mad at myself for being such a baby. <br><br>I started picking people off. Some guy came around me and we chatted for a wee bit. He had started late and was really moving. I was keeping up with him which helped push me a little bit. He dropped me and I was on my own on the bike path. Pretty curvy and I was running alone.<br><br>Finally, about mile 11 it opened up and I could see the people around me and instantly thought road kill! Picked it up nicely the last 5k and finished really strong. Was surprised my last 10k was 40:23 and last 5k was 19:50.<br><br>I�m really not sure what to think. One part of me is really happy with the result, especially on tired legs and the other part is frustrated that I ran such an inconsistent race. <br><br>The result puts my marathon time at 2:59 (Daniels) and 3:00 (McMillan), which starts to get my brain thinking. But we�ll see how Bear Water goes this weekend.<br>