Well, I can't say I am happy with how the race went today, but at the same time I can't say that I didn't expect something like this to happen. Money went three deep. I was a few seconds out of third ($50) and no more than 14 seconds out of second ($150). I just didn't feel like I had it there today. If I would have run like I can I think I would have placed second, but I think that a combination of travel, bad sleep a couple of nights ago, and running more miles this week than I have ever run just took away that little bit extra that I needed. Well, here is how the race went. 1 mile: 5:01 - Downhill, we took it easy and ran as a pack. 2 miles: 5:06 (10:07) - Downhill at first, then hit the first hill of the course to start the rollers. I was with the second place finisher at this point. The winner had already taken off and left us.
3 miles: 5:40 (15:47) - A good portion of this mile was uphill, and fairly steep so I backed off. The second place runner moved up, and I went back with a group of three runners and started running with them. 4 miles: 5:22 (21:09) - A little more downhill on this mile but still rolling. It was during this mile that I realized that every time we started heading uphill, I was losing ground to the other guys, but that once it evened out or headed down I would hold even with them or pass them with less effort then on the uphill sections. I just didn't feel very strong on the uphill sections for some reason. 5 miles: 5:40 (26:49) - Another uphill mile. At this point I was in 5th and maybe 10 seconds behind 2nd place and 5 seconds behind 3rd and 4th. 6 miles: ~5:11 (32:00) - Another downhill mile. I couldn't see the mile marker but from where it should have been I think I guessed my mile time pretty good. The 3rd and 4th place runners have now caught up to the 2nd place guy and are running with him. I am about the same distance behind as before, maybe a little closer. 7.46 miles: 40:27 - We went up one hill just past 6 miles and the 4th place runner started to fade. The road flattened out and I caught him just a little bit later. We then turned the corner and started back up the hill to the start and the same thing happened just like earlier; the guys in front all started pulling away. They got a decent sized gap on me and then it started flattening out a bit and they started coming back. I made up almost the entire gap that the third place runner had on me, but I ran out of room and finished in fourth. So, I am kind of disappointed with the finish, and I was hoping to finish about 30 seconds faster, which would have placed me in 2nd. There was a light wind as well which might have slowed me down by 10-15 seconds over the course of the race, but there is no saying for sure. But, I guess I can take consolation in knowing that I did well considering the situation with traveling and not feeling 100 percent for the race.
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