OK, Jeff and Scott have both mentioned the hills. Since we live just a mile away from where the race course turns back to downtown, I've been running these hills for my last 3 or 4 long runs. Since my last 3 mile time trial about a month ago was 27:36 (9:12 min/miles - ugh, so slow), I figured I'd be happy with a 1:40 for 9.3 miles considering the first 1/2 of the race has those killer hills. However, realistically I thought it would be closer to 1:50 or 2:00.

Then, I'm reading the race brochure Saturday night and it mentions a cutoff point at 4.5 miles that you have to make by 50 minutes into the race. If you don't make it, they re-direct you another way which cuts 2 miles off the distance. For a flat 4.5 miles, I'd have no problem with that. But I know how slow I get on those hills. Jeff tried to convince me that I'd be fine, but I had my doubts.

Woke up at 3 am to get some water and saw that there was snow on the ground. It had mostly melted by the time we left. Downtown, where the race started, it was completely clear. Met up with JJ and Scott about 20 minutes before the race started. It's always cool to meet TNO peeps in person.

Jeff and I ran together most of the first mile, until he took off because he felt like he was messing up my pace. Looking back now, I was glad for the 15k cut-off because it definitely made me work harder than I would have. I tend to subconsciously settle down into my marathon pace whenever I do a run longer than 8 or 9 miles, so I really had to pay attention to that. About 1.5 miles before I got to the highest point in the race, there was snow on all the trees and some kind of sleet or something very wet and very cold coming down. I was cruising along fairly well - hadn't worn the HRM but knew the HR was up there. Anaerobic Endurance/Muscular Endurance workout, I guess.

I made the 4.5 mile checkpoint right around 48 minutes (yay!). From that point on, the race is pretty much downhill, so I had a big-time negative split for the 2nd half. Overall time was 1:31 by my watch (:45 behind the race clock since we started in the back).

Successes:
- 9 minutes faster than my best case scenario, and faster than I was running at this time last year (and I'm only in Base 1!).
- Negative split. 1st 4.5 mi averaged 10.6 min/mile; last 4.8 mi averaged just under 9 min/mi. I knew it would be a bit faster because of the downhill 2nd half, but I usually wuss out at the end so I didn't think it would be that much better.
- I didn't puke at mile 8 when some oh-so-thoughtful spectators were passing out doughnuts, moon pies, Peeps, and beer. The smell almost did me in.
- I got two guys to start running again when they started walking during some tough portions in the hills. Since I've run that section of the course a lot, I know EXACTLY how far it is until the next downhill or flat section.
- I read something in Runner's World about writing inspirational messages on your hand to look at during a tough portion of the race. So I put a smiley face on my left hand and had Jeff write something on my right, which I didn't look at until 3 or 4 miles into the race, when I was struggling a bit. I HIGHLY recommend this! In my case, what was written on my hand was pretty darn funny, but it doesn't really matter what you've written. When you're struggling in a race, it's usually a mental thing and you may just need something to take your mind off whatever destructive thought it has decided to grab hold of.

So….I'll try to get some more speedwork in, drop a few pounds, and LOOK OUT!! Anyone who trains with Jeff is BOUND to get faster, right???

If you made it this far, thanks for reading my long-winded report….Happy Training!!

- MG