Horsetooth Half Marathon 2011

About a 2 1/4 hr drive to Ft Collins, so an early start to get to a long line of traffic and then a long line to pick up race number.  They ran out of shirts.  Put my name on the mailing list - will wait and see if that ever comes.  No more than 5 minutes to warm up - would have liked more.  Started and went uphill at good grade (9% or so) for first 2 miles.  Averaged a 9 min mile pace - wasn't easy, could have gone harder but didn't want to spend all I had then.  The wind picked up, swirling at times and quite strong also - I really don't like running in the wind - some thoughts on that for another time.  After the first set of hills, reached the high point of the course - wasn't all down hill from there but a lot easier.  Bingham Hill, Heartbreak hill - amongst them - but with the ups came the downs - I held back on those, not wanting to squeeze the quads.  Avg pace bounced around 7:15 to 7:45 avg the next 6 miles.  Felt good, pushed (and puffed) on the uphills, passing quite a few people - some of whom passed me on the steep downhills - but I passed them again later.  Had a Shot block at each of the first 3 water stations - I'm starting to think those things help.  Maybe that is part mental.  The last 5 miles was a slight grade downhill on a bike path - a little bland in the scenary dept and felt the feet starting to increase in temp and with that a little discomfort.  Average 7:22 for those 5 miles, couldn't really go much faster but I didn't have the wheels fall of either.  For at least a couple of those miles I hooked up w/ a group of 3 others - we kind of took turns leading and drafting off each other.  W/ about 2 miles to go I felt the guy in the front at that time running out of gas a bit so I took the lead and no-one came with me.   Pushed on to the end, passing more people towards the end of a race is always a good ego thing.  13.1 miles came on the watch, at the same time the sign for 13 miles came up.  The mind and body didn't like the concept of another .1 miles - sucked wind till the end.  Final results = 1:40:37.  135 overall (1443 finishers) 14 / 75 for age group.  Took 3 days to find the official results - what's up with that?  Would have liked to be under 1:40 but considering the hills (especially the first set) and the wind - I'll take it. 2011 Horsetooth Half marathon results