<p>Alright, OM's signing up for a real marathon! Sweet!</p>
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<p>Excellent relay, KS...... stiff competition there!</p>
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<p>Welcome back, Laura!! As KS said... interesting sandals.... and my feet hurt just looking at them.</p>
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<p>Hi TW, Johnny and Erika!!</p>
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<p>Today was the second of the trail series, and was being held about 20 minutes from my home. I ran about a mile of the trail as a warm up, trying to fathom the course markings, as they didn't match up with what I'd remembered from the course map and hey, I know this venue like the back of my hand. The about 20 minutes before the race started they announced that they'd made a few last minute changes, and the longer race would be 10.5K instead of the 12.3K they'd advertised. Whatever... but now I had no idea how to gauge the effort, as I didn't know which of the many nasty hills we'd be tackling. It was a wave start and as I approached the mats, I tried to figure out who in the early waves might be in my AG. Spotted one woman with a Camelback pack who looked to be about my age heading out on the wave ahead. The waves were spaced about 3 minutes apart, so I knew if I could get her in my sights I could beat her. So I took off with young girl in her 20's who paced me for about the first K. We stayed together thru a few small hills, then I hit a big downhill and took off, dropping her handily. there were some seconds of confusion at the first aid station, where the course split off into the short and long segments and no course marshall was there to direct the traffic. The poor aid station volunteers were left to sort out the runners coming thru. I passed several runners and then on the biggest nastiest hill just past 5K, spotted my prey walking near the top. Aha! She was out of sight again by the time I reached the crest, but I zipped thru the twisty downhill section that followed and closed in on her again as we started into a long section of switchback climbs. Caught her as we reached a nice section of double track. We chatted a bit as we came into the next aid station.... she stopped for water and I continued thru, not seeing her again until the finish. The course twisted and turned, up and down thru the forest mountain bike trails ... but by now we were pretty spread out. I managed to pass another couple of guys and closed in on a younger woman ahead, but she had more gas left in the home stretch than I. I felt I had no reason to leave it all out there, so let her go and finished on my own terms. </p>
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<p>Finished 62/99 OA, 15/40 women and 1/8 AG.</p>
<p>Felt pretty good... hamstring, foot and knee all behaved themselves.</p>
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<p>Good luck tomorrow, HappyFeat!!!</p>
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