Notes
Weather: 45 degrees with steady light rain.
Plan was to ease into the first few miles and not go out hard from the start. I went out just as I had planned running the first mile in 5:46. In the 2nd mile I had dropped the pace down to 5:33, which actually felt comfortable and about the right pace. At this point, I was running right behind a pack of about 8-10 runners. I hit the 5K mark at 17:32 and miles 3-5 at 5:31-5:35 pace. Approaching mile 6 there was a gradual incline followed by a steep climb. On the steep climb, I caught up to the pack of runners who I had been trailing over the last few miles and put about a 5-10 meter lead on them. Mile 7 was a long slight gradual incline, which felt tough because it had followed the steep hill. Around mile 8, four of the runners who I had passed on the hill caught up to me. We all ran together for the next couple miles. It was really nice to run with a pack at this point of the race. I hit mile 10 just a few seconds over 56 minutes. I didn't realize until after the race that we had run 5:27 and 5:20 pace for miles 9 & 10. After mile 10, I encountered a stitch. I'm not sure if it was because of that fast last mile. It wasn't long after the 10 mile split that I started to lose some ground from the pack. I think they maintained about 5:20 pace over the last 3 miles while I ran 5:31, 5:43, and 5:35. The long gradual incline at mile 12 was brutal. The stitch made it tough to breathe. Luckily, the last mile was a gradual downhill and I was still able to run a decent mile (5:35).
Overall, I'm a little bummed that I didn't break 1:13. However, considering that the conditions and course was not set up for a fast time, I'm still happy to have run a 1:13.
I was 15th Overall, 2nd Age Group, and won the Military Challenge.