Notes
I followed my race strategy pretty closely with only one real deviation.
I went out about as hard as I normally do in races, leading for the first mile before a half dozen or so people passed me. The general plan was for a fast first 5k (which was mostly downhill) and then to maintain about 7 minute pace much of the rest of the race. I wanted to stop at the aid stations for water/cytomax and walk the tops of the uphills on the campus side and early on the oak hill side so I'd be able to run the last few hills before the finish. This course is not flat at all.
One of the fields on Oak Hill got removed and replaced with a field on the campus loop...I liked this course much better than last year's. Not that there's a huge difference, but that field was fun to run through. Hopefully they keep the race as is for the future.
For walking the hills, my strategy was to run until I was only moving at a pace that I could walk at, and then to walk since it uses a lot less energy. I did slow down a little, but I was able to make up for it on the downhills. A couple guys caught me on one walk and tried to encourage me, but I thanked them and said I was good and then blew past them once we had crested. One of them passed me when I was taking off my shoes.
Which is what the 1 thing that I did that wasn't in my race plan. My left foot was going numb by the time I was halfway through the race, so after a few miles of having a numb foot I decided enough was enough. As I passed through the grove (start/finish area) at about 10 miles, I took my shoes off and tossed them to the side (one of the Atayne guys grabbed 'em for me and put them in their tent.) I then ran the last 5 and a half miles barefoot, which felt pretty good.
All the acorns on Oak Hill had either been crushed or brushed off the path when it was mowed, so other than a few rocky stretches it felt pretty good. The final field felt awesome, except for one problem. Some of the stalks of grass were really stiff and thick (it *is* a haying field that was recently mowed for the race) so I wound up impaling my foot at one point about a third of a mile from the finish.
Not that it mattered much during the race, I had a good finish. I passed a few guys that hadn't managed their nutrition too well and faded hard in the last few miles, and I wound up trying to out-kick some Jeff Silveira to the finish...between the really rocky path right before the final sprint and that he had a good kick to finish with, though, I was only able to come in right behind him as he held me off.
I spoke with him a few hours after we finished and he'd had no idea I was that close. He thought since I was barefoot that I was one of the ultrarunners and didn't know I was even in his race, and since I didn't have shoes on he couldn't hear me running behind him. But, it didn't matter, he still beat me.
I finished in 1:48:23, I'd hoped for 1:45 but figured I'd be finished in 1:45-1:50 so about where I thought I'd be. It was a good time.
Best of all was watching my wife finish; she ran 2:26 and beat over half the field and had a smile on her face at the end. She looked strong at the finish. I'm glad she had such a good experience...maybe she'll decide to train for a marathon again after all after having finished that.