On my way to the race I was just excited that it was not raining as the weather report said there was a 90 percent chance of rain. I met up with Riley and Dave and we loaded the buses. As we got off of the bus it was cold and very windy. We sat down on a bench and watched many people try and sneak onto the shooting range and this guy was getting mad at everybody who got close.
We took a few bathroom breaks before we started. As we were going to the starting line, we did not get a warm up in and I did not stretch very much. We were more worried about staying warm and going the bathroom. About a minute before the race starts it starts to rain. I was thinking oh crap, I hope it does not rain hard the entire race. It rained for about 10 min or so then it stopped and was on and off the rest of the race.
The race started off really slow and there was about 10 guys at the front. The race was windy and Riley and I decided to switch off taking the lead so we could draft off each other. About mile 5 or so we had another guy with us and he was drafting off of us as well. I was thinking to myself who is this dude? Can he really run with us the entire race. Riley told me before the race that he wanted me to run with him through the first half of the race. Up until about mile 13 we continued to switch off the lead every half mile or so. Around mile 15 or so I saw my family and got a huge adrenaline rush and dropped a very quick next mile then I ended up suffering for it.
Riley passed me around mile 16 or so and I tried to go with him but my legs would not move any faster. I kept looking down at my watch and thinking to myself dont die, stay around 5:30 pace as long as possible. It was around mile 22 that I started to fade really bad and I kept looking back to see if anyone was coming up to pass me. The last 6 miles or so I had to weave in and out of half marathoners I was not a fan of that it through off my rythem and made it harder to keep a solid pace. I am really happy I went as fast as I did as long as I did. At St. George Marathon I died to around 6min pace for the last 6 miles or so. Where as this race I only died the last 4 miles. I know if I increase my mileage I will be able to finish the race around 5:30 pace. I was very happy with this race and know that it was a great learning experience and better races are to come.
Splits went 5:28, 5:22, 5:27, 5:17, 5:36, 5:46, 5:13, 5:19, 5:14, 5:16, 5:19, 5:22, 5:29
14th to 26 5:21, 5:14, 5:17, 5:23, 5:27, 5:30, 5:30, 5:27, 5:36, 5:44, 5:57, 5:56, 5:56
| 
