Well I wasn't sure what to expect going into this race. I had hit some good workouts, but I was also pushing my mileage to the highest it's ever been and have had fatigued legs all week. In the end, I am quite happy with the result. But, it was a grind today. Never at any point in the race, even early, did I feel comfortable. It felt hard to whole way, but I just kept at and kept grinding it out. And now my calf muscles feel like someone hit them with a sledge hammer!
Ken and Janae were nice enough to let Ben and I stay with them at her parent's house. So, that was nice to have a free place to stay close to the race. It took forever to get on a bus and we didn't arrive to the start line until 6:35. So, Ben and I found a secret bathroom to skip port a pottie lines and then got in a quick warmup before heading to the start.
The race was out quick. Jake went hard from the get go and Ken and Jason Holt also pushed that first mile pretty hard, while Ben and I backed off a tad.
I passed Jason during mile 2 and came within 7 seconds or so of Ken. Ken kept the gap until the end of mile 5 when I decided I needed to get up to him and start working together. So, I did and then I pulled ahead a tad on a flat section and then he pulled ahead again on a downhill. We didn't do much running "together" as in side by side but we did plenty of pulling and pushing and kept encouraging each other verbally. Miles 5, 6, and 7 had a really good tailwind and then I never felt it again really after 7 (there was actually a slight headwind for the first 4 or so, but nothing too bad).
At the turn out of the canyon, I measured Jake's lead and it was 45 seconds. During the next section Ken put about 7 seconds on me again while I backed off a tad to conserve a bit for the uphill section.
About this time my stomach started grumbling and I was scared I may need a pit stop. As we turned to go uphill at 10.5 miles the lead was still 7 seconds. During mile 11, the most difficult mile, Ken started to slow so I made an effort to catch him and did right at 12 and told him to hop in behind and let's go!
Ken and I were teammates and Weber and are almost like brothers. He's the only person in the world I would encourage instead of try to break when passing at mile 12. Ken responded and went with me. We picked up the pace and then my stomach started hurting bad again. I had to slow down to avoid an embarassing moment and Ken got 5 seconds on me again. Luckily the stomach pain went away and so I made a hard surge and caught Ken at 12.7 or so. Ken turned and asked, "What's the plan? You want this one? Or are we kicking?" I answered, "Let's finish it together."
We continued to pick up the pace and did basically a synchronized kick for the last bit. We both finished 1:07:44 (Ken .2 ahead of me for 2nd). It's a one second PR for me, so I am happy with that. Ben then finished 4th only a minute back for a huge PR, I was so happy for him. He's been wanting that sub-1:10 for quite awhile and it was sweet to see his hard work finally pay off!
Garmin Splits: 4:59 5:07 5:08 5:11 5:01 4:57 5:01 5:08 5:16 5:17 5:25 5:23 5:05 and 40 for the last .15 or 4:32 pace
It was great to see several friends and bloggers at the race! | 
