Lil' Rhody.

Yesterday was the 19th annual Lil' Rhody runaround. This is a race I love, but have had a somewhat poor history with running it. This year has been about redemption - and I've managed to (1) lose weight, (2) get stronger and PR in the half and 10K - so what would the Lil'Rhody hold?

It started well. A cool day - perfect for running. Since I pre-registered I got a new dry-fit type of t-shirt in orange - which was good since I forgot to bring my orange pull over - required for this race to avoid having runners get shot by hunters. I started out pretty fast - probably in the 7-7:30 range for the first 4 miles or so. The footing during the first half wasn't bad at all, although the single-track made it difficult to pass people. However I knew this going in - and probably pushed it since I knew it was easy to kinda fall in behind people who start fast and then slow down. I hit the first road section and planned to burn it pretty fast - but my stomach was feeling a little upset - so I backed off and just kept a decent pace.

Things really slowed down from there. I seemed to have trouble with footing the next 3 miles and it seemed much more up and down - with the ups being slow and the downs feeling a little more technical than I remembered. I probably did about 8-8:30 miles for those 3. The last mile may have been a little faster as a lot of it was open road. I maybe passed one person, but couldn't close on anyone else - as most people seemed to still be running strong. I ended up finishing in 1 hour, 1 minute and 48 seconds - good for a 7:44 pace. This is pretty good - it's 24 seconds/mile slower than my half pace - but considering the footing issues with the trail run - probably about what I could reasonably expect.

In fact, it was my best run for this race after numerous attempts have been derailed by sickness and poor sense of direction - this is the only race where I've missed 4 minutes from getting off-course. It's probably a good 3-4 minutes better than my best ever time here. The post-race is great: good soup, nice roaring fire and awesome medals - although I'd have to shave over a minute/mile off my pace to finish in the money - probably not going to happen. Links: a nice write-up by the female winner, the WTAC page and Snerro results.

This week I'll take it pretty easy - probably run the Mystic Turkey Trot and Dip on Thanksgiving.