Notes
First race of 2019 and first official race since the Naperville Turkey Trot. Going in my goal was to just get used to feeling uncomfortable and to also trust my fitness and get after it. Weather was 28 with a feel of 18 and 10-12 mph winds so honestly pretty solid conditions. The course is full of constant uphill/downhill combos and 2 hairpin turns so settling into a pace is pretty tough to do (or at least it was for me). That being said, settling into an effort was very easy and I was proud to go out hard. Fell off the top 3 and was with a Fleet Fleet guy through the mile in 4:49-4:50 which was great considering the first mile is uphill. Hit the hairpin turn and about 2k in I fell a few seconds off as the other guy and I kept fartleking to try and break each other. Stayed 3-5 seconds behind that guy for the remainder of the race and also got caught by another runner, although I remember his PR's are far superior to mine so the fact that I was able to hang/duke it out with him till the last 600 meters was good. Just kinda bummed I let him get away because then him and the fleet feet guy had a good kick match and were able to work together the last 400 or so. Either way, crested the downhill and picked up the pace but just had a hard time pushing because nobody was behind me. Finished feeling like I did a hard workout and legs had more left in them, but I couldn't really use it so hopefully I served the purpose of ripping off the race bandaid. Got 6th place and while I wish my time was a little faster I really thought I did a good job effort wise and competition wise overall! Good start to the racing season of 2019!