Notes
This was a very good day. I was quite worried that I would have a typical (of late) bad day and the 13 miles would be torture every step of the way if I was trying to force a decent pace. Diane and I started out running and easy pace as the race starts out uphill. I noted that our first two miles were at 10-minute pace and of course that is why it felt easy. Our 3rd mile was an 8:34 though and after that lots of 9-minute and change miles even with the long rolling climbs.
We spent time trying to pick off people in front of us that were faster on the downs and flats but clearly not comfortable with the hills. It took us until mile 7 to catch a women that was quite quick but would walk some steps on every climb. It became a big-race goal to catch her before we crossed over to the 3 flat miles on the other side of the hwy and we were thrilled when we did it.
The final 3 miles was very confusing with all distances running every which way. We got off course briefly (about a 1/4 mile in total) and were briefly bummed by this but we managed to pick up the pace (this at mile 11.5!) and catch the 6 women that got ahead of us while we were off course. A bit too much work with that mistake but no big deal.
A bright, cold, sunny day on a beautiful course. Race went so much better than I expected. Strong to the end.