will write details later. am proud of my effort. K, I am home. I just have to say that I think the weather people are over dramatic in their forecasts. Woke up at 6:30. Took Musinex and other meds, had oatmeal. Checked the weather. Light rain, low 40's, wind. On the way to the race I call Amber to discuss wardrobe. I brought an assortment of clothes in my car. I got to the race a little over an hour before start. Picked up my packet, then back to my car. Met up with AmberG and ran most of my warm up with her. I know I felt off, and she seemed to not be into the race either today. Why was I feeling off? These are not excuses. These are just some unfortunate inputs: sore throat (sounded froggy), stuffy nose (musinex took care of these two symptoms during the race), dizziness that has been with me off and on for 2.5 weeks, and I could feel it in warm up. Also the knowledge that this was supposed to be a key race for me, but the weather was kind of crummy, and I was worried about how well I could do. Got about 2 with Amber, a bit over 3 overall in the warm up. I kept running back to my car to modify my wardrobe. I eventually changed into shorts. Wore shorts, singlet, my windbreaker, throwaway gloves and my pink brooks launch. I think the wardrobe ended up being ok, but I wished I had arm warmers instead of the coat, since the coat acted like a parasail in the wind. There were some long and short mile marks, but I will try to piece the race together Mile 1 6:25, has maybe 70 m of red mud after .12 or so at the start, I follow Steve Hooper along the edge and it's not too bad through most of it, I felt good in the race for about .25 miles :D, turned east and had head wind. Throughout the whole race I battled the wind alone, with the exception of 5 second breaks. When I would pass someone, they would be going too slow, so I would tuck in for a couple of seconds before moving on. There was a great big group of HS guys ahead of me, but I couldn't catch them. Mile 2 6:15, .98 lapped at mile marker on this one, I am lead woman Mile 3 6:14, there is a 180 turn in here, can see Ty is next girl, then Amber, then the Sojourners chick I met before the race (name is . . . can't remember) Mile 4 6:15 Mile 5 6:12, big hill looming Mile 6 6:25 uphill, then crest Mile 7 6:57 uphill and headwind Mile 8 funky mile split, have 6:45 pace for .81, I think I was trying to get on their mile markers, this was still uphill Mile 9 6:21 pace for .94, another funky split, I should really just let my watch run Mile 10 6:04, finally we do another 180 and there is some downhill and tail wind Mile 11 6:34 up and over a hill Mile 12 6:19, down hill, but it was 1.19 miles to get to the mile 12 marker, the .19 was at 6:30 pace Mile 13 6:11, have been dizzy during the race, but it is increasing towards the end .3 @ 6:16 pace to finish, including another jaunt in the red mud/dirt. 1:25:10 end time I measured it at 13.25, which is the shortest I heard of from anyone. I guess I am way good at tangents :) The shortest besides mine was a couple of people at 13.27. A couple of other people were at 13.4. Assuming the course was .25, then it was .14 long. 1:25:10 is 6:26 pace for 13.25, so I can take off 54 seconds. 1:24:16. UPDATE: BASED OF STEVE HOOPER'S COMMENTS, THERE WAS A TIMING ISSUE. SO I LOOKED AT MY OVERALL TIME PER MY WATCH, AND SUBTRACTED MY COOL DOWN, AND MY OVERALL TIME FOR THE RACE WAS 1:24:30, subtract 54 sec for the extra length and we get down to 1:23:36, not too shabby :D This is not the result I wanted, but I did work throughout this course, and I didn't give up, and I had some good miles in there. I felt at mile 6 what I normally feel at mile 9 ("this race is getting long, my legs are tired"), but I hung in there. There were no steep hills, mostly 1-2% grades, but it had long stretches up and down, that combined with the wind and rain, made it a challenging race. Ty came in second a couple of minutes behind, and Amber was third. I now have a down week before serious marathon training and two-a-days begin. I need to regroup mentally (let go of the two races that haven't been up to snuff), and I need to get well--kick the cold and hopefully that will make the dizziness go away. I am in Phase 3-which means I consider running in about every decision I make. Which means I didn't have any naughty treats after this race. I did go to a Thai restaurant Saturday night, though, so not 100% dietarily virtuous. Monday is my b-day, Ben will make me fat free brownies, and Paul will make me a chicken salad :D :D
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