Woke up around 4 to meet up with my brother in law and ride the hour north to start line. Had a breakfast of peanut butter and bagel + banana and blared Earthling on the way up. Opted for my Saucony Kinvara 12s over my Altra Riveras at the last minute. Firmer shoe to give me a little bit more speed if I needed it.
Got to the race by 6am. Starting gun at 6:55
Starting line nerves kicked in as the corral lined up for the next 45 minutes, then we were off.
Those first two miles were faster than I had planned. 8:38-8:45. Easy to get caught up in the crowd. I stayed back from my BiL pretty early lest I burn out. Everything smoothed out by mile 3, and by mile 5 I caught back up with him through mile 7. Saw family at about the halfway point. My 6 year old niece had a simple, but amazing sign: "go run, uncle reid."
Mile 9 was a SLOG. This run/walk racer kept catching up to me then staying back. Over and over. Made me feel like there was a glitch in the Matrix. The route itself was pretty boring. Just three long straight, flat segments. Great crowds the whole way though.
Mile 12-13 is where it got interesting. Once I crossed a lake, I knew we were getting close to the end and close to turns and buildings. I had enough to sprint through the finish, in front of a concert pavilion where I've seen PJ play in '00 and '03, so that was a cool full circle moment.
Got my goal of sub 2. 1:56:53. Sharing that with my family at the end was indescribable.
Thanks for all the support in this thread. I will definitely be racing again. This was fun as hell.
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