Nervous at the beginning as usual. I knew I wanted to push myself and see what I could pull off, but I hate that feeling of knowing you're going to be feeling kind of bad most of the time. Then Ken reminded me that I had actually set a goal time of 27' for the race. I can't believe I forgot about that! I didn't feel terrible really. I like to start out quick. Doing pick-ups to get through the crowd seems to help get me off to a good start. The uphill went well. I like passing people on those. Don't know why I'm good uphill. Turned a corner on a flat and eventually a tall lanky guy (with an orange shirt, I believe) came up to me and we ran together for quite awhile. Contrary to some opinions....I was glad he was there to keep me going. Eventually I kept hearing some stomping from behind, then I heard a familiar voice - Mike! Mike ran with me for awhile too. We managed to pass the tall guy, but then came the downhill. I've always thought I wasn't the strongest runner on the downhill. That was proven to me when Mike just took off and I tried to keep up but really couldn't. My feet were on fire and I couldn't push myself any more or risk just flailing out of control. Once we got to the bottom and passed the 5K mark I tried to gain some ground on Mike, and I did a little bit, but there was no way I could gain back the ground I lost on the downhill. Oh well.
I'm so glad Ken reminded me about my goal I had set for the race at the start. I looked at the clock as I approached the mat and it was ticking down to 27 minutes. I picked it up as much as I could to get to that time - 26:59!! Yeah, baby!
Good for 1st in AG, 4th female, and 21st overall!

I need to do more speed work and specifically work on my foot work going downhill.

Walked a bit to get my breathing under control, then stood around with the family and drank a lot of water and watched Ken and Dudley come in.
Later on I crowned Dudley the winner of the Biggest Loser competition!


Going downhill, more speed work, maybe (probably) lose a couple of lbs.
A couple of observations: There were fewer overall participants this year than last (11) - maybe the extra K scared people off? There were a few more women in my AG this year. My overall average pace was slower this year - 7:10 last year vs. 7:14 this year.


Really good race. Nice 6K course. A good balance of up/downhills and flat. Roads in good condition. Plenty of friendly volunteers, everything on time and well organized. The beautiful, sunny, perfect temperature day certainly helped.