but a good race.  Weather conditions were about what I expected, maybe a little less rain, which was nice.  I did my usual warm up of about 2 miles with some race pace strides, then back to the car to change into my racing gear.  Got on the line in plenty of time, its a small enough race that I was right up front.  The gun went off, and as usual, many people bolted out way too fast.  I was barely in the top 20 by the mile.  The markers were terribly placed, I didn't actually see one until 4, which we hit at 24 flat.  I met up with a guy I know before the race and I figured we'd hang together as long as we could.  6 minute pace with the strong tail wind we had felt very easy, and we kept it up through the halfway point, which we hit right at 40 minutes.  Then we made the turn back into the wind. WOW!  I have never raced in such ridiculous conditions.  Solid 20mph wind, gusts easily up to 40.  But I was still feeling good so I kept pushing.  After the turn, my friend Carlos hung with me for a mile or so, then he drifted back as I continued to push.  At about 7 miles I was working really hard to maintain 6:30 pace, but I was reeling people in!  At the turn I was 9th.  By 8 miles I caught 8th and he started drafting on me.  Thats fine, I thought eventually he'd take a turn in front.  Before 9 we catch 7th place and he falls in behind too.  Now I've been pulling hard into the wind for 2.5 miles and nobody wants to share the work load.   As we're coming up on 10, the guy who is right behind me kicks my foot for the 3rd time! at which point I turned around and told him to either take a turn in front, of stop kicking my F-ing feet.  He didn't take a turn.  SO now I'm still feeling good, and with less than 5k to go, these guys have done nothing but get me pissed off!  So I really put the hammer down with everything I had.  By 12 miles I had dropped them both and am now running up on 6th place.  As I'm approaching, over the course of a half mile or so, he looks over his shoulder repeatedly, he's hurting.  As I catch him, he gives a good surge and stays ahead for a few seconds, but then quickly folds as we head down the home stretch.  He gave it all he had but totally fell apart at the end, he got passed by me and the two guys behind me.  So final place was 6th, 1st in my age group, and official time was 1:23:23.  All in all a very solid effort, gives me a lot of confidence for the marathon (Plus, I had ZERO pain in my knee, I didn't even think about it once.)  I had a lot left in the last few miles.  On a calm day I could have run much faster.  Total for the day was 15 miles.

 

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