I signed up for this one pretty much last minute. After surprising myself by crossing the finish line of the Rocket City Marathon just a couple of weeks earlier, I was feeling great, but that inner voice was telling me once again to take the foot of the gas and take it easy. I still wanted to see local running friends (almost all of our usual training crew signed up) and try out my awesome christmas present (GoPro Hero 3+ Black Edition, review to follow) from my wife, so I signed up anyway with the intent to only ran a few miles.

Chris Estes and I chatting prior to the race start.

I arrived at the race about 30 minutes before the start. James Duncan and Ed Johnson had already set up the "mandatory" crewing chair near the start/finish area and kindly allowed me to drop my stuff there as well:-) The weather was perfect for racers, but for me planning to get in some easy miles it seemed just a little too chilly. I kept on all of my layers as I grabbed my GoPro camera and strapped it to my head. As is the case every year, lots of my local running friends and heroes were in attendance once again. I managed to catch up with a few of them before the race started. I lined up in the back third of the field of runners. I wanted to take it really slow and decide after each 3 mile lap, if I was going to go out for another.

10 miles into the race, I decided to call it quits after completing another lap to get a nice half marathon in for the day. Since I didn't have to go much longer, I tried to pick up my pace jut a little. When I arrived at the finish line, I felt like I should do another lap, so I guilted Cary Long into running one lap with me. I continued to keep pace, chatting away and focussing on my footing as to not reinsure my ankle on my final lap. All went well and I finished the day with 16 miles at 9:45 min per mile pace, not too bad for a gimp on trails:-)

Action shot brought to you courtesy of Gregg Gelmis:-)