Temperature was a bit cold for a race at 27 F and falling when we arrived. I had time to run a 2 mile warm-up. Hugh ran part of it with me. The warm-up felt okay. I had no goal for this race other than to see what I could do.
I was at my car removing some clothing and saw people moving. At first I thought the race had started but still had 7 minutes. People were just moving up to the new start line since the course changed slightly this year. I found myself in front and then thinking what I am doing in the front. We had to run a few feet and then turn right. We were off and I started fast to get out of way.
Looked at the pace and slowed it down since I was 5:30-something and then had to think what pace was reasonable so slowed down to just under 6. I passed quite a few people on one of the hills that must have started too fast. I had 6:0 for my first mile on the GPS which came 13 seconds before someone called out my mile split so it was off a bit. My thought is I probably can't keep this up since I am not prepared. However, I was still feeling pretty good so kept pushing.
At the turn around in the Hearnes parking lot I see Jackie and decide to catch her. We ran the rest of the way mostly together but we didn't say anything since we were both working hard. We ran near each other in this race last year as well. The second split was 6:11 so didn't slow down too much. I used the down hills to try to recover and pick up the pace and ran the uphills pretty well. I could tell that I am not in shape to run this pace though. I was ready for the last mile to be over. The last mile I ran in 6:23 so slowed a bit. Course was just a bit long at 3.17. My total time was 19:38. Jackie had 18:55 at the 3.1 and said I was just a bit ahead of her.
I was probably in the top 20 or so but no results yet. Awards were for overall male and female. Ended the year with 2675 miles. Picked up a case of the low-cal MVP2 Gatorade that Schnucks gave away since it was nearing the expiration date.
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