Decker Challenge 20k

Time: 83:00
Distance: 14.5

Goal: run conservatively, shoot for 5:30s, get long distance racing experience
Race: 68:41 (?) for 5th

Mile splits: 5:25, 5:23, 5:16, 5:20, 5:36, 5:29, 5:21, 5:35, 5:18, 5:51 (54:38 10 mi.), 5:43, 5:39
5k splits: 16:36, 16:58, 16:46, 17:48 (not exact, calculated from pace)

Overall a good experience, but at the expense of the bottoms of my feet (parental discretion advised) and my digestive system. Felt physically aerobically good running the entire way. The splits aren't representative of my effort because of the hills (PDF), but the effort was pretty consistent through 15k, at which point I was somewhat bogged down by the massive hill and blisters on both feet. Started out just off the leading group of Derek Yorek, Bernard Manirakiza and Lance Parker and ran with Gilbert Tuhabonye for about the first four miles. At that point I went after and caught Mark Farris (who looked like he was running pretty easy) who I ran with until I got dropped heading towards the 10 mile hill. I caught Parker with a mile to go, but as he sensed I was on him, finished quite a bit harder than I was able to. I really had to avoid getting on my toes whatsoever for the last 5k.

Had the worst workout stomach I've possibly ever had for a few hours after the race. This was probably a combined result of not having gotten in this many miles in a single day in over a month and just having gotten over being sick.

Place  Name                Age   TIme        Pace
=====  ==================  ===   =========   ======
1      Bernard Manirabiza  28    1:06:06.5   5:20/M
2      Derek Yorek         23    1:06:30.4   5:22/M
3      Mark Farris         23    1:07:49.0   5:28/M
4      Lance Parker        26    1:08:28.3   5:31/M
5      Owen Washburn       24    1:08:41.8   5:32/M
6      Gilbert Tuhabonye   33    1:09:17.7   5:35/M

More: Wish has a write-up at RunTex.com, there should be photos online sometime, and full results are up on the race site.