Notes
Sick race. Was gunning for a sub-18. Got a wicked nose bleed on my warm up run down to the race start. With the rain watering down the blood, my face was quickly covered. As I pulled up the the race, I think I traumatized a few people.
Race start was downhill and we flew down the hill. I said, fuck it, and tried to hold the blazing pace. I was in the lead pack with about 10 other runners for the first mile at which point 2 runners put in a surge and nobody went with them. I never saw them again. That left 8 of us. I was up to 8th place at the midway point and was able to track down another runner around mile 2. From there I could see the 3rd place runner about 20 seconds ahead and the 6th place runner 5 seconds ahead. I went for it all on mile 3 but couldn't make up much ground. The last quarter mile is straight uphill and nobody was making a pass there. Going into the hill I knew I had a shot at a sub 6:00 pace and let it all hang out. Left no more then a second or 2 on the course. Now I know what "pain" is. I wanted to fucking quit the entire time. Mind was screaming at me to stop. Breakthrough race. I'm hungry for more.