Huntsville Half - Dave

I had been getting a mild cold all week and kind of felt like crap, but I decided to go for it anyway as I might be able to take the $500 if everyone was going to St George. It looked like ugly weather was going to be the order of the day and sure enough, a nasty rain awaited us at the start. I cut a mouth hole in a garbage bag and stayed pretty dry until the start. Then I discovered that a few other people far faster than me had decided to run this race for the first time. The first mile was free but it felt slow, so I was shocked to see it go by in 5:06. I was even more shocked that the first two guys did it in 4:37. I led the race for maybe 200 meters. Then three more passed me in the second mile as I slowed down to a more reasonable 5:28. The rain started coming down harder and my big socks sucked it up, making my feet heavier and heavier. Also we ran out of significant downhill so the next three miles were 5:34, 5:56, 5:59. At that point I was completely alone and starting to feel a little under the weather, ha ha. I just decided to phone it in and not get passed for the rest of the race - 6:04, 6:06, 5:57, then getting flat and tired - 6:11, 6:09, 6:21. Then my right knee started to hurt a little again. At this point I just decided to be careful and then take a long time off running afterwards to avoid chronic injury, as I have been really pounding it. So I finished with 6:17 and 6:10, then 5:23 at the end just for fun. I almost got beat by the first place girl (1 minute) but I managed to keep ahead. Crappiest race of the year - I didn't even feel sore the next day. But not bad for being sick and heavy. A fun way to end the year and it helped clear out my cold.