I was pretty pleased with the end result, but the effort/pacing could've been better. After an inconsistent few weeks, I figured I'd be in about 53:30-54:00 shape and was right on the money. I had to stop a couple times during the second half of the race, however, which I hate doing. I think it was a combination of lack of conditioning and being mentally pooped out....I found myself in the middle of no-man's land, with nobody within about a quarter mile, which can make things difficult. I probaby cost myself about 45-60 seconds doing that, or I would've been even faster.
12 seconds slower than what I ran for the race last year, but there was a fresh layer of snow, which made footing tricky in spots and probably slowed the course down a bit.......I went back afterward and compared results among some of the top people who ran both this year & last year and found that just about everybody was 2-4 minutes slower this year. That cheered me up a little bit.
It should also be noted that I was the only person competing in the male 25-29 age division, but a win is still a win! :)
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