Gold Discovery Run

Elevation Gain : 1,671 ft
Elevation Loss : 3,171 ft
Miles : 16.5
Time : 2:35.03
Pace : 9:24 min/mi

I was really happy with my performance at this race. I like to run races in this fashion : start out slow, get faster if I feel like it, but don't slow down. Slowing down feels like defeat. Sometimes this causes me to go out too slow and not make up the time.

We started at a 9:30/mi pace. It felt good to do the hills on an even pace. Everyone that we passed in the first six miles was on the uphills. Matt and I were like machines, appearing to others that we didn't slow on the hills at all. We played leapfrog with a few people for the first six miles. I'm slow on trail downhills because I fear for my left arm. They'd pass us on the downhill and we would pass back on the uphills. Eventually, we lost these people completely. I credit a lot of my new-found hill endurance to those terrible days on Ester Dome. (remember the day I said I lost confidence and hoped someone would return it to me?, got it back today!) I found myself actually enjoying the hills, because that meant nobody would pass us at all. Until this summer, I wholeheartedly HATED hills, because of their difficulty mostly. (I refused to do any hill or speed work--maybe that's why I'm still slow.) The race has an overall elevation loss, so it would have been easy to let my pace go crazy and fly down the hills. I kept it to a max of my flat-land pace (8:30/mi), so I wouldn't have sore legs all week.

By mile 13, only two people were in sight. An older man and a 30 something woman. The woman struggled behind us for the previous few miles and finally passed us at a water station. She kept ahead of us until mile 15, where we continued at the same pace we had near the beginning. We also passed the older man, (whom won the 60-65 age group) in the final mile. He finished just 30 sec behind us. The woman finished a full 3 min behind us. We also saw her from the front for the first time, noting that she was sporting a just-starting-to-show baby bump. Doesn't seem like a big accomplishment to pass a senior citizen and a pregnant woman, but it was! After chasing them for nearly 6 miles, it was great to finally catch them both. They were literally 100 ft ahead for that entire time!!! There were still lots of people behind us. I placed 21 of 100. Matt placed 30 of 80 (since he ran with his slow wifey--he's really a lot faster than me). Great day!!!