Notes
50 degrees at race time. Wind SSW at around 12-15 mph. Looks to be around 125 people at the starting line. 25th running of the event. Disorganized race but fortunately the course is basically a big loop so have to be a moron to screw it up. On the pre-race warmup noted 3 - .25 mile hills on the course and several other shorter hill climbs; the hills started around the .60 mile mark and the second mile of the course was repeating rolling hills.
Take off and a bunch of college kids and a couple of younger guys blast out. I am in 13th position coming to the first hill and in 12th at the first turn onto Halliburton Street. Out nice and easy and biding my time in anticipation of seeing how many guys I can take out on the first two hills. One mile mark at 5:51. First mile felt easy and in 12th position. Just behind a group of 4 college boys. By the end of the second hill in 7th place.
Second and third miles felt difficult and was working hard to maintain sub 6 min pace on second mile(harder than it should have been). Hit the two mile split in 5:57 with 11:48 elapsed time. In 7th place overall at the 2.5 mile mark and pick off another guy on the hill. Creep up on two more with about 800 meters to go and pass one of them putting me in 5th overall. Think I can get one more. 2 college boy bandits peel off with a tenth to go and I am unable to catch the guy ahead of me. Finish third overall and 1st in the 45-54 age group. andyman finishes around 18:44 and I talk to him for awhile. He finishes 6th OA after running a 50K last weekend. Winner runs a 17:02 and looked like he was in his late teens.
Third mile split of 5:47 with three mile elapsed time of 17:35. Last .09 miles in :27 sec for a 5:20 pace. No clock at the finish line. A guy holding a stopwatch yelled "18:02" as I went through the finish line. The official result sheet shows my time at 18:03. Except for the first mile which felt easy, the run felt much harder than a tempo run. Will need to pick up the pace next week or it may get ugly fast.