IF Half. I was hoping for a PR on this fast course.
One of the buses didn't show to shuttle people to the starting line and of course I was one of those people. Waited for about 45 minutes for another bus to get there, got to the starting line 10 minutes after the race was supposed to start.... had about 7 minutes to warm-up and get a bathroom break in and then we were off. A couple of fast girls were there as well- one who beat me at this race last year and I have been wanting to redeem myself.
First 1.5 miles is downhill, about 0.75 mile flat with a hill and then another 2.5 miles downhill. I run downhills conservatively only about 5-10 seconds faster than my flat pace. People just bob downhill and I catch most of them in the first half mile on the flats.
6 girls went out pretty fast and I let them go. Caught 3 when we came to the first flat stretch and then caught 2 more rigth off of the last downhill. My rival had about 3 minutes on me off of the hills. I wasn't sure if I would be able to catch her, but I just put my head down and chugged away.
I could tell I was gaining some ground on her- I was maintaining a 6:40 pace and felt good. At mile 10 I was about 45 seconds behind her- support car was keeping tabs on me letting her know where I was.
We came through the park and I had closed in a few more seconds. With a mile left I was about 15 seconds behind. I wanted to surge, but I knew I needed to wait another half mile and just keep my pace steady. I was on her heels at 400 m to go and made my move. I passed her and we both sprinted to the finish for the last 200m. It was a grueling 200m and the fastest I have probably ever gone at the end of a half- I just focused on my form and my arms and was able to pull off a 4 second win! I joke that I out leaned her :)
It was a good race and nice to have someone to really push me, especially at the end.
Ended up with a PR, but I was hoping for about 30 seconds faster....oh well- my goal for next year!
Not sure, but it may be a CR or really close....
Sprint tri followed directly by a 5 miler this weekend...
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