As I sit here in the Logan Airport awaiting my flight back to Denver/Boulder, I feel very excited about my training thus far and my potential in this sport of road racing!  Even though today did not go as planned, there are a lot of positives I can take away from the race and the weekend.  First, I have to thank the BAA for putting on such a phenomenal event and letting me be apart of it.  The trip, experience, and race was first class all the way.  Every single official I had contact with was remarkably friendly, courteous, and helpful.  Second, I met a lot of new friends on this trip.  On Friday Ruben Sanca and Tim Guerin were nice enough to drive from Lowell to meet me for a fun seven mile run around Franklin Park.  It was great meeting two young distance runners who train very hard and sacrifice a lot to become the best they can be…I wish them the best of luck in their upcoming races!  I also had a chance to talk with Terry Shea of the BAA who I’d met once last year and gave me helpful advice on the course.  He’s running Baystate Marathon next weekend and I wish him the best of luck in the marathon!!

On to the race itself – there were a lot of positives.  I moved to Boulder August 19th.  My first workout was a week later.  That gave me about 4 1/2 weeks of workouts to prepare for this race.  In doing so, Coach Jay and I had to kind of sacrifice a “taper” and continue to progress training.  My last two weeks (104, 102 miles) were two of the best weeks of training I’ve ever had.  It’s hard to have both the best training and the best racing of your life at the same time.  This course was also much much harder than I anticipated. The beginning miles were not that fast, and after miles 4-5 I swear the rest of the course was uphill or at least each mile had significant hills.  None of the hills were steep, but they were slow.