(Unofficial) FINISH TIME: 2:00:35 OFFICIAL FINISH TIME: 2:00:02

I love this race and will be doing it again next year if my schedule allows for it. Today was not my best run by any means. I started off too fast, as usual, but found my tempo around mile 3. I was having a dandy old-time until mile 5. That’s when my right IT band decided it wasn’t in the mood to run today. I changed my stride and concentrated on running easy and with a shorter pace. I also slowed down on turns to minimize the stress on my tendon. I felt pretty decent until mile 12. That’s when I hit the wall. I simply didn’t have any juice left in my body. Running through pain sucked the energy right out of my body. I thought I would be able to push it home on the last half mile, especially since the race finished on the FSU track, but I did not have it in me. So, I was passed by about 50 runners who were trying to beat the 2:00:00 mark and I scampered across the finish line right around 2:00:35 (official results pending). I train doing negative splits, and this was anything but a negative split.

All in all, I am happy with my time. The goal for this race was to finish and feel good. It is about 3 hours post race and my knee is hurting and my stomach is not happy. I am nauseous and have stomach cramps. That is my own fault since I decided to consume some pepperoni pizza as soon as I finished. I should have cooled off and then stuck to bananas and pb&j sandwiches. I’ve eaten some kids Pepto tablets and am starting to feel better already.

Per my Garmin, my performance by mile:

1 – 8:55

2 – 8:20

3 – 8:33

4 – 8:32

5 – 8:55

6 – 9:18

7 – 9:00

8 – 9:07

9 – 9:19

10 – 9:14

11 – 9:31

12 – 10:03

13 – 10:41

13.1 – 1:02 (10:13 pace)