I get to Missoula later than expected,
but still get packet picked up, and still get to check out David
Boone at Ten Spoon, which is always a good thing. I'm a big fan of
David's stylings, and get to enjoy some awesome wine, along with some
awesome rain.
The plan was to wake-up for the race
at 4:00 and get there early. I oversleep with the alarm set to
silent mode (this is one annoying feature), but am fortunately woken
up and manage to get to the race on time. I do end up struggling to
set up the annoying hard chip that needs to be zip tied into the
shoelaces. I'm really tempted to start just putting those in the
Nathan packs, since they are such a pain to deal with, and I really
care about lacing systems. I get downtown, get on bus, get to
starting line, stretch out, wait for race to start.
I do the smart thing, and start at the
back of the pack. Actually, that isn't quite so smart at Missoula.
The event is large enough that I spend a lot of time pack weaving,
including dealing with the super-annoying Galloway method runners. I
have no object to using Galloway for personal training, but it goes
against the spirit of racing, and makes life more difficult for
fellow runners. I also get to deal with a few walkers who managed to
weasel their way to the front of the course.
So, I spend the first three miles
trying to weave through the pack. Actually, I spend the first two
dealing with the mess, then I blow by the water station, completely
ignoring it, and life is now good. One thing I learned in this race
is that I'm getting really good at hitting the water stations. The
trick is to only slow down a bit, bend the cup, and take a huge gulp.
There's an art to it, which I figured out. Despite my water station
skills, they still ended up being problematic, as fellow races would
completely wreck pace ahead of me, beside me, and behind me at the
many stations alongside the Missoula race course.
The other upside to Missoula is that
Missoula has a lot of spectators. For someone who tends to high five
everyone alongside the course, and toss out the famous 'wooo' this is
a good thing. There's more spectators at Missoula than at the rest
of the events I'll do this year, and the spectators are well spaced
along the course, rather than clustered at the end. Missoula gets
credit for this, because Missoula is good, and does good things.
Anyway, I start flying on the course
once I get my bearings. My pace for the race was only 8:53 per
mile, but that was a really strong 8:53, and I felt like I was
getting faster and stronger, rather than slower, as the race went on.
Since I had 3:45 of difference between gun and chip time, I knew
that I was running people who had slower pace than me as I passed,
which was a good feeling. The one difference between this and the
other runs that I've done is that Missoula has enough people on
course to always be in a crowd. Once I hit the University district,
rather than the usual thinning of racers, the field actually became
more crowded.
So, I guess I've got to say, I ran
this one strong. The time probably would have been better if the
legs hadn't been so busy in the last week, but I don't really care.
It's my last race until the Elkhorns, and I'm feeling good going into
it.
297
|
Cody Custis
|
Helena MT USA
|
3519
|
29
|
M
|
38
|
1:56:16.0
|
2:00:01.0
|
3:45.0
|
8:53/M
|