Notes
Arrived about a hour early. Got in a nice warm up on the back end of the course. Amazed to see open pavement, fresh salt/dirt mix and only snow/ice on corners. Start was kinda un-organized. No one really said where the start line was, just a cone in the middle of the road. OK. Start went off, through 500m or so a good size group of us, 5-10. First mile went off without a hitch. I didn't want to go out blazing fast (no one else did as i was within 5 sec) a group of 3 took off probably 10 sec ahead of. me. Than the HILL. Holy cow. I drove it upon arriving and damn it was a beast. a solid .25-.4 of climbing at a fairly decent grade most of the time. From 1.5 on we had a nice downhill to get our legs back. At mile two one guy stopped to tie his shoe, not even to the bottom of the hill yet (ouch). He got within probably 5 sec of me a half mile down the road only to stop again, and scream (Talking with him post race his shoe came untied AGAIN). Poor guy. He probably got within 5 second of me during the remainder until 4.5 ish. At this point we are running against runners who are coming down the hill. These runners have to cross the road from right to left as we look at them, meaning we have to cross these runners. the volunteers weren't paying attention really. So as I'm going by 1 car is make a left hand turn (going with all the runner, and turning into me) and a car is trying to go straight. No volunteer paying attention to me coming. Got through that mess, about .3 to go. The guy now in second place is about 15 sec ahead of me. A slight uphill than a dowhill to the finish in the school parking lot. I had no turnover left. Just gutted it out and dug just thinking "the guy behind me can't catch, can't chatch me. Will not be passed!". Didn't get passed. boom. 3rd OA. 1st AG. piss poor time, but for no speed whatsoever, limited training, heavy legs, and lots of excuses, Ill take it today. Work to be done.