My apologies for the lateness of this post. I've basically been in a running hiatus, running but not for any real purpose other than to keep my sanity. I have been very busy in business and personal matters.I entered this race hoping for a personal record. I'd heard that this was a fast course, and it was mostly down hill. By profile it is a more gradual and less of a drop than Tucson, but supposedly move even.
A running club friend was coincidentally running this race also. His reason was to qualify for Boston. We made it to Sacramento with no problems and went to the expo to pick up packets, talk to and listen to Bart Yasso. The next day we drove the course with a couple of other people from Oklahoma.
Race day was cold and windy. The buses to the start were efficient, but not very warm. Still, they were warmer than outside. I left the bus with about 20 minutes to go and made my way to the porta-potties. I got in and out with just minutes to spare. Once again, I was unable to make it to my starting area and ended up in the 4:15 group. We started and I slowly caught up with the 3:45 group. I hoped to run faster, but wanted to hang with them until the halfway point. This course was much hillier than I thought it would be, but everyone said the second half was better. I passed the 1/2 in around 1:50 which is about what I wanted. I hoped to at least even split. I left the 3:45 group hoping for a more downhill course. I assume it was, but again it was hilly to me. I could also tell I was soon going to be having energy problems. I started losing about 10 seconds per mile, and there didn't seem to be anything I could do about it. I was tired, cold, and the wind was blowing in our face. I started walking through the aid stations and continued to slow. I was finally having to walk about every half mile, and even when I ran it was around a 10 minute mile. I finished in about 3:52, quite a bit short of my sub 3:42 goal. I didn't feel bad, just tired, so I wasn't too disappointed. Any finish not hurting is a good finish.
My friend found me at the finish line and told me he had been successful. Great Job David
