| Date: | March 2, 2014 |
| Distance: | 8.0 km |
| Time: | 0:31:50 |
| Pace: | 0:03:59 minutes/km |
| Overall Place: | 17/312 |
| Division (M30-34) Place: | 4/23 |
| Map: | here |
This was a really nice race where I felt good and performed pretty well. I hadn't set any target pace since the course is pretty hilly and has a bit of trail on it. But this freed me up to run fast when I could and slack off when I had to. That seemed to work out pretty well. The second climb in the race, at about the 2-3 kilometer mark, _really_ had me hurting, and I lost 2 places that I never got back. But for the rest of the race I was able to maintain position for the most part. Although I seemed to lose some ground on those ahead of me on the big downhill at the end. Really, I'm not sure how they ran it faster, because we were flying. Anyways, the forest was beautiful and the weather was reasonable. I was glad that I pulled myself out of bed for this one. Also, I _finally_ got a ribbon! Yay!