Notes
Ran this with the Nashville Striders. I was pacing real close to some of the others on the way to Percy Priest Lake, but pretty much on my own on the way back.
My legs felt pretty good. Almost felt a little sick to my stomach as I was getting into the car to drive, but maybe just some anxiety for the run that was about to occur. Felt fine when I got down to the start.
It was showing 72 degrees outside temperature when I got there at 5:45 AM. So it just didn't cool down the night before like they predicted. Humidity was about 90%, so it wasn't ideal conditions.
There were up and down hills right from the start, so I told myself I really had to hold back some to start until I got some rhythm for the hills. Had enough water in my water bottles to get me to Percy Priest Dam, so I was able to do those first 7.75 miles without any water stops. Filled up the water bottles and Percy Priest, turned around and headed back towards Wave Country.
A pretty good climb at the end of the 14th mile, but felt good that I was able to get back to sub 9:00 on mile 15. I could tell I was getting some fatigue as I hit the 16th mile after crossing the pedestrian bridge to Shelby's bottom and could see my pace was dropping slightly, but just kept plugging away.
I didn't feel too bad on mile 20 with the hill to climb to get back to the pedestrian bridge. No ill feelings at the end like I have experienced in the past.
Overall I felt this was a really good training run. I think this is a much tougher course than I will experience in the Twin Cities and I should have much better temperatures to run in for TCM.