Melissa, her father and I had left Harrisburg 12 minutes until 9:00 and I was anxious to not be late. The drive took us around 10 minutes! I arrived at the start area as the National Anthem signaled the race was almost at hand. A countdown then came over a loud speaker of one minute until race time. It couldn’t have been much closer!
I scoped out the field at the front of the pack. I could see a half dozen high school cross country runners on their marks. I knew they would run close times together while feeding off each other’s youthful energy. I sometimes wonder the runner I would have become if I had started in my teens.
The course had several changes from the last two years, which consisted of: a new start location, a loop through a neighborhood near the old start, a reroute just after a slot canyon where we ran on a foot bridge parallel to a river, and some various street changes. The finish area remained the same from last year. I’m not really sure if the changes made much difference on overall finishing times. The first mile however, was on an incline, so it made me feel sluggish on the warmup.
My primary goal for the race was to better my time from last year of 1:27:27, which was 3:22 slower than 2013. I hoped to average 6:30 per mile or better. The question was how I had prepared and if the unexpected course changes would be in my favor or not.
Overall, I felt good through the race, and I put in a few strong miles. I ran in clusters of other runners at times, and had a couple opportunities to surge and overtake some of them. My mental state was much better than last year, as I had felt a lack of drive and motivation. I came away with a second place age group award, which was a pleasant surprise.
I enjoyed running in this race for the third time. The last race I ran was in October, and this was an opportunity to test my fitness. I’ve been consistent with my mileage throughout fall and into winter, at around 40 miles per week. It’s not relatively high by any means, but I’ve found that consistency is important for me.
My Garmin splits were:
1. 6:33
2. 6:31
3. 6:26
4. 6:14
5. 6:12
6. 6:32
7. 6:02
8. 6:25
9. 6:41
10. 6:50
11. 6:37
12. 6:56
13. 6:23
Last .12, :46 (6:32/mi.)
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