Hurricane Hill 10k! :)

July 19th-Sunday; 12 miles-(33:52) of biking on the indoor spinning bike in the PM. It was very hot and humid working out during the power outage.

July 20th-Monday: 7 miles-(55:18) in the AM

July 21st-Tuesday: 12 miles-(1:35:25) with a few short breaks because I drank a lot of water beforehand in the AM

July 22nd-Wednesday: 7 miles-(51:24) mostly with Seth in the AM. Felt pretty good starting out, dropping a 6:47 1st mile and then a 6:15; slowed down to 7:30's after that.

July 23rd-Thursday: 4 miles-(31:16) in the AM + another 4 miles-(31:49) on the same route in the PM

July 24th-Friday: 5 miles-(39:36 + 6 BF ST on the grass + drills) with Seth in the AM

July 25th-Saturday: Hurricane Hill 10k-Vermont-9 miles-(1.5 wu-11:36 + 6 mi. race-43:51 + 1.5 cd-13:00)-combined total-(68:26) in the AM
Race Report:
The race director gave out some quick, pre-race directions at the starting line, and then we were off with a simple "GO!" I got a pretty good start, and was side by side with my younger, but speedy brother leading the charge down a choppy, logging road; where about 400 meters from the start, the course took a sharp left across some rocks and up a trail. This is where I wasn't paying attention to any arrows and kept going straight up the logging road. I was shouted to by other racers including my brother that we were supposed to go left. With frustration I doubled back as quickly as I could to settle into 6th or so as we began to climb. It was very quickly apparent that this wouldn't be like last week's trail race where it was just Seth and I from 2 miles on. We all climbed about 300 ft.-(according to Strava) during that 1st mile with the last part being pretty steep. My legs felt zapped after we crested the hill, and started down a single track section. Seth took off on the downhill, and then it leveled out. I caught back up at this point while shaking out the lactic acid build-up, and went by him. I hoped that I could stay in front of him from there to the finish line which I was happily able to pull off. The rest of the race after that which was from 1.75 miles on was just reeling in the guys that really attacked that first climb. I caught one fairly fast within the next 1/2 a mile and proceeded by him-(Luc Morin). I caught glimpses of the next 2 guys up ahead and focused on catching them. I passed one of them-(Jordan Frazin) right before the 3 mile mark that was lagging behind at that point-(I could tell he was hurting.) I stayed with the guy in 2nd place-Vincent Lyon who I beat by almost a minute at last weekend's race so I was pretty confident that I could edge him out again. I stayed right with him up until 3.5 miles or so and then just cruised past. It turns out that he was just biding his time, and knew the course pretty well from winning this race when they held it last September. I threw in a surge and he went right with me. Almost went the wrong way again just after 4 miles into it, but thankfully he shouted to me to take another sharp left so I doubled back to be the follower again. The last 1.4 miles consists of mostly downhills with some rough turns thrown in. He took off on this section of the course. I was able to go with him up until the last half a mile where I twisted an ankle and just couldn't keep up with his fast pace. He did take a pretty good tumble where it just looked like he rolled, jumped back up, and then continued racing! It was quite the sight! I never saw the 1st place guy again after that first steep climb in the beginning. He beat Vincent by 1:30. The guy-(Chris Gish) ended up being a 17 year old from VT, and his sister won the 10k for females as well. In conclusion, I just didn't feel as happy with the race overall as I did last weekend. I should have really gone for it from 3-4 miles to try and lose Vincent before the long, downhill finish. I'll get him next time! :D

48 miles-(6:13:14) of running including 1 tough trail race in Vermont! + 12 miles-(33:52) of spinning for the week :)