I’m not going to do a full on review of this race because I did that last year. I will however give my opinion on the course, since it was new this year.

Packet Pickup

I grabbed my bib and shirt and “packet” Friday before the race. I was a little disappointed with this years packet, although the reusable shopping bag was nice. The tech shirt was nice and the fit was good. Then I had fajitas for dinner and headed home and went to bed.

Race Morning

I woke up with what felt like a lump of something in my throat. I figured it was just allergies because it’s that time of year, so I just continued getting ready and hope for the best. I wore Lululemon running tights, a Lulu long sleeve top, the race shirt, and my Brooks shoes because I haven’t had a chance to get used to my new shoes I got yet. Since this is a dog-friendly race, I also brought along Kaycee. On my way to the race, I ate half a Cliff Bar crunch and drank a bottle of water. About 15 minutes prior to the race, I used my inhaler and then headed to the starting area.

The Race

I thought the course this year was a bit of an improvement over last years course. There was much better traffic control this year (thank you volunteers and police!) and the course was a bit more challenging to me. I swear it is one of the most up-hill feeling courses I’ve ever ran. The elevation chart from my Garmin doesn’t show much, but I constantly felt like I’d be going up hill, then have to turn and corner and keep going up a hill. So tough. But I manage to tough it out and finished with a fairly decent time (thanks to a particular pups many bathroom breaks along the way).

My miles slowed down considerably over the course of the race, which isn’t highly unexpected since I haven’t run in forever. But I’m looking forward to getting back into the swing of training and have several training plans mapped out for some of the various races I have coming up this year.

Overall Results

• Overall Place 413/436
• Age Group 53/54
• Gender 222/237

You can see there is a bit of difference in my moving time vs. my overall time. We did have to stop a few times for bathroom breaks and such, and my Garmin automatically (automagically) knows when I stop moving and start moving again. So I guess I will go with 49:47, as my official race time.