I've done this race a few times and I really like it. It's has a small local feel and is well organized. The setting is really nice and the course is challenging. I chose to do this one again this year because I think it will help with my long term goal which is Boston. The course is a hilly out and back near the base of the Superstitioin Mountains. I knew my friend Ricardo would be doing the race and we are really close right now. We planned on working together as much as we could. When the race started we were racing for 2nd place fairly quickly. My goal for the first two miles was to be conservative and not look at the watch until the mile markers. Well the first one felt easy but it was a 5:57 which was a little too conservative. I picked it up immediately and my race was on. Ricardo and I ran side by side and progressively brought the pace down. I felt like we were running hard but just barely within my limits. There were a couple of moments where I almost let Ricardo go but I made the choice to run his more aggressive race and see how it played out. We made the turn in 37:50 or so and I started to feel pretty good. The mental side of heading for home plus running by and receivng encouragement from the other runners gave me a boost. The hardest part of the course comes at about 8 1/2 to 10 1/2 miles with a couple of miles of uphill and today a headwind. Ricardo asked if we could share the work each half mile during the stretch and I said yes. He lead the first 1/2 mile and I literally felt like I was jogging so when I took over at 9 miles I put a gap on him and that was the last we ran together. I could feel the difference right away of runnning solo and in front vs behind. I suffered pretty good the rest of the way up the hill but bottoming out with a 6:01 mile. I had put about 10 seconds on Ricardo in the 10th mile. The last 2.5 miles are a slight downhill and we had the wind in our favor so I was able to pick it back up and have a decent finish. I feel like I ran really hard and couldn't have got very much more out of myself. I was able to see my wife and kids with about a 1/4 mile to go which was great. This was 7 seconds slower than I ran last year so I'm happy with the progress I've made since taking a break. The winner was a high 1:11 and was a spec in the distance for most of the race. I finished 2nd in 1:15:05 and Ricardo was 15 seconds back. By the way Ricardo just turned 50! He has been breaking all the state age group records the last few weeks since his birthday. Overall happy with the race and my effort. Great day of running!
Splits: 5:57, 5:51, 5:49, 5:34, 5:37, 5:48, 5:43, 5:34, 5:49, 6:01, 5:48, 5:28, 5:33, 28 seconds
Course Profile from a random runner
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