For the first time in over a year, I went into this knowing it was hard, but without looking much at the course map or elevation profile or even where the aid stations were or how many. Since I didn't have mental landmarks about what would happen, it became much more a pacing exercise. Especially since this was a finish-it-comforatbly race while tapering back overall for a few closely spaced, but very different, races that I want to peak at in mid Sept. And since my left quads/hamstrings and right foot were tight going in, and one goal was to work this out instead of worsening it.
After driving up through fog to Joseph Grant park, it was pleasantly sunny, and would get quite warm. I started comfortably, but it would turn out to be too fast for hills. I'm just finishing a speed-focused training block on roads, which made it easier to run uphill and increased my speed downhill a lot. But hill strength is behind now, and I had to slow down a lot in the second half to keep heel pain under control (usually a sign up calf strength on hills being behind speed capability for me). But the run was fun, I had a few conversations on the way, but didn't sprint to the finish as I typically do. This race wasn't about speed so much as seeing where I stood on hills, which will be the focus of the next few months of training.
I finished in 2:44:53, fifteen minutes off my expected time, 5/9 in my age group and 121/178. PL finished her 5k, and wants to run a 10k next.
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