Lined up with Dud about 1:50 group. I didn't do much of a taper for this but Friday and Saturday was pretty low intensity. But did spend a lot of time on my feet Saturday catching up on some spring cleaning. But I wasn't really sure how the legs would react.

Star Spangle Banner, wish Dud well as we figured we would get seperated in the crowd the we were off!

First mile or so is down hill then flat through downtown areas of Rochester for the next 4 or 5 miles. Some great smelling baked goods and occasional bacon had me questioning why I didn't do the 5K option.

Was holding comfortably to a 7:55 split so decided to go for the 1:45 time, but that got derailed on the up hill towards Highland Park. Started to have some calf cramps. Nothing debilitating, but it did force me off my pace some, add in the upcoming hills and whammo, 1:45 becomes 1:50. Haven't had to deal with cramps in a race in a few years.

Through the park and onto the cemetary. Reading the dates and names helped keep my mind occupied. There are some famous dead people in there, like Susan B Anthony and some guy that was a suspect in the Jack the Ripper mysteries, I'm told, but mostly just people that have been there a while. The biggest challenge through the first part of the cemetary is a short section of cobblestones that aren't in great shape, and some fairly short but steep sections of ups and downs.

Out of the cemetary and off to the canal path. Some frustration here as it is flat and just couldn't pick up the pace like I had hoped. But I got over myself as I wasn't planning to PR this when I started and I just needed to enjoy the day.

Getting past the canal path and onto the stretch to the finish brought a little extra effort with the crowds cheering. Great that so many people came out to support this! Saw the clock hit !:49:00 and push to try and stay under 1:50:00. Snuck it in just under, so I was happy with that.

I think the base of my problem was that I should have done a better job hydrating on Saturday and early Sunday. Instead of drinking coffee on the way to the race I should have been drinking the extra Infinit that I had with me. It is easy to forget to drink enough when the temps are comfortable.

A couple of the early miles might have been a bit too fast for this distance too.

Grabbed some water with Dudley who came in right behind me (I better get my bike and swim trainig up to speed or I will be buying some steaks come July!) and waited for the others to come in. After Tanya finished we grabbed some food and waited for Kara.


Fleet Feet/Yellow Jacket does a great job with this race, especially considering it is only the second year.