Race #2 of the Season: BolderBOULDER

This race was about two weeks ago, so forgive me if this isn't one of my more in-depth race reports. That, and I decided to do this post tonight rather than tomorrow so I need to bust this shiznit out before eating and packing up the car for tri numero uno tomorrow.

Ahem. If you recall from last year, this race was our first 10K. Lessons were learned from last year namely:

1. Get to Boulder EARLY. We actually made our wave start with plenty of time this year.
2. For Brandon, use the freaking port-o-potties. Twice if need be. This prevented an in-run stop like last year.
3. FedEx Mobile Locker was a genius idea. Continued with that once again.

The race start and finish were closer to each other this year and since we had an event after the run near the start line, that's where we parked this year. Worked out fabulously and the walk to the car felt good to stretch out the ol' legs.

As I posted a few posts ago, we had a few goals for this race. If you don't want to click back, I'll share them once again:

1. Beat last year's time.
2. Crack a 10:00/mi
3. Crack 60:00 total.

One and two were the main; three was a stretch. We hit one and two and were close from nailing three.

Since this wasn't an A race for us, we decided to run together. I'd pace Brandon through the early miles and he'd get us through the later miles. This worked out okay for the most part ...

Mile 1: 9:01.38
"Holy crap, that was fast. But that also felt great! That being said, we should probably slow it down a bit ..."

Mile 2: 9:28.46
"That's better."

Mile 3: 10:08.46
"Um, what happened there?" To be fair, mile three had a lot of twists and turns and was pretty much everyone's slowest mile. It was for the few people we knew running it; it was for freaking Ryan Hall. In consensus: mile three sucked.

Mile 4: 10:02.59
"Stupid high point of the course."

Mile 5: 9:40.48
"Better. Much, much better."

Mile 6.2: 10:33.92
"Stupid last hill that's not even as bad as advertised. Stupid run into the stupid stadium. Stupid run around the stupid stadium. HOLY CRAP FINISH LINE SPRINT!"

Last 1.2 miles seemed kind of slow, but they hurt. And going up into the stadium I kinda wanted to vomit. That's how I knew there was no way for me to find any extra time to crack 60:00.

Final Stats:
Overall place: 15,309 of roughly 49,000
Division/place: F27/243 out of 831
Gender place: 5515 out of 26963
Net time: 1:00:51 (9:47/mi pace)

Pictures:

Pre-race! Right after our Starbucks stop.


Runner with Chick-fil-a cow! That FB? That was our wave start, too.


Start line.


Brandon in the FedEx Mobile Locker line ... letting us all know his Sioux pride.


Me in line ... in my standard race shirt.


Backdrop thingy for photos. But only for stupid Brightroom.


Bleacher thingys.


Runners in the final mile.


Runners heading up the final OHSOHORRIBLEOMG hill into the stadium (which is around the corner obscured by trees).