Notes
Mass Dash leg 2, Buckland to Ashland. Got the baton with about a 45 second lead over 2nd place, however I'd heard that they were mixing up their legs so I was running against someone who hadn't done the earlier climb. This leg was roughly 2 miles flat, 2 miles up a pretty bad uphill, and then 2 more uphill miles that weren't quite so bad. Went out at a strong but pretty measured pace, my legs were definitely feeling leg 1 and I didn't want to kill myself before the hill. As I started to climb the hill, I could hear the kid rolling up on me. A pretty crazy duel commenced, I was going 100%. IT band troubles started to flare up which was annoying and my legs were shot from earlier. Obviously once I hit the hill the pace really slowed but I kept the effort high. When the kid didn't cruise right by me, I knew he was struggling too and I decided to make him really work for it. Stayed focused and surged a bit every time I heard him starting to close on me. Finally I saw a big crowd of cars and people milling about at the top of a hill, the two of us both "kicked' and handed off even. Stretched and rolled IT band afterwards, and took some Advil - it was hurting.