That was f'ing hard. Signed up for the Castle Rock 1/2 earlier this week because it seems to be everyone and their mother is racing something this weekend, so I wanted to as well. ( Chris A. - you caught me ). HUGE thank you to Sandy L. for driving out to cheer me at the finish and stay around for awards. AND I got to have lunch with Leanne O. after. Win!

I've never actually ran in Castle Rock, so I didn't know anything about the course other than the folks I know who ran it last year saying it is a pretty hilly course. And it lived up to the billing. A couple long climbs, but it was really the nonstop short, steep rolling hills in the middle of the course that just gassed my legs and left me feeling out of shape and humbled. Course record on this is only 1:17, so I thought I had a great shot at breaking it based on previous half-marathons, but that was before I knew the course.

Started out with a guy sprinting past the lead pack (of two runners) at about a 4:30 pace...needless to say we caught - and dropped - him by the first mile. Ran with Garrett, who set the CR last year and would go on to run a 1:16 today to set it again, for the first two miles before the course made the first big climb. He started to pull away there, but I kept him within about a 10-second distance until mile six or so when he started pulling away little by little. Not a lot to say about the rest of the race as I was running it pretty much solo.

Maintained about 5:45 pace until the last three miles where it's a long gradual climb up the bike path back to downtown Castle Rock and ran the last three around 6:08 pace...and it really felt as if I wasn't going anywhere. It didn't help that the course is 98% exposed to the sun...and there was a LOT of sun today.

I will say that my Achilles was felt during and after the race. And still is, however it's not anything bad, just a dull soreness that I will take care of and baby for the time being.

It's good to get back to racing this distance and making progress towards racing a fall marathon.

I'll take a 2d overall finish at this point in my training...I may not be happy with the time, but the placement works just fine :)