I went in to this race with the attitude that I was unwilling to kill myself for the second time in two weeks to get a PR. I just wanted to see how good a time I could get while running at the limit of easy. Curtis was there so I figured it was an even chance to win, since he was only six days out from Mexico City. We started out briskly as usual and a few people kept up with us, but they dropped off after about a half mile and even curtis started losing a few feet. By mile 1 the footsteps were getting fainter and I had to concentrate constantly to keep from running at the limit. Even with holding back I ended up with a 5:02 which was kind of surprising. I dropped back even a little more but the hill got steeper so I ended up with 5:04, 5:04 and 5:01 for miles 2 3 and 4.
By this time I was actually enjoying the run, having settled into a perfect pace just short of lactic land. I decided to let that continue just to see how things would go. The hill gets gradually less steep and my times reflected it - 5:11, 5:26, 5:20, 5:35, 5:27. I started to look back and couldn't see anybody. Not even on the long straightaways. I was starting to push a little further into the lactic to maintain the pace though because it looked like I might actually win if nobody caught me on the flat.
Mile 10 was 5:45, and now things got a little nastier with small rollers. I also stopped a moment to get a proper drink of powerade. I still couldn't see Curtis but the cheering indicated he was a little over a minute back and I was in his house now so I knew I needed to hurry. 11 was 6:01 even with the stop, so I was definitely into tempo land. 12 has the worst of the rollers and it was 5:53, and things were looking grim for 13 through the neighborhoods but I squeezed out a 6:07. I guess kicking back the whole time had made me a little lazy at the end. I stumbled around the track and across the finish line just after the 1:11 mark, Curtis was only 45 seconds back by then so I'm glad the race ended when it did :)
And now it's Sunday and I'm not even sore at all! OK maybe a little.
1:11:01 1st
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