With my first place "trophy" - much cooler than a plastic runner on a stand
We rolled into Ellerbe about an hour before the race and it was a scorcher. The temperature was around 95 and the dew point was near 75 (that's pretty high I think). The sun was just frying. Luckily, about ten minutes before the start, some clouds rolled in and blocked it out, so one of the four factors that make the Boogie absolute torture was gone. We started out nice and easy and instantly a pack of three guys formed in the lead, running about 6:40s going downhill for most of the first 3 miles. The first lap was steady and easy, at 6 miles we headed down the steep two miles out and back (second half UP) for the second loop of the figure 8. By now it was me and Josh Hite (frequent Marathon racer, he had probably run one the week before) When we turned around and headed back up the massive hill, we slammed on the brakes and ran a nearly 8 min mile, intentionally. We had both seen what that hill can do. about halfway up, the guy we had dropped went charging past. I had to fight the urge to just go after him, but I kept him on a decent size leash, if he was making a move this early, he must not know about the Boogie. At about 14 miles he had started to slow up and look behind for me. I went up the big hills on loop 1 and then stretched out on the flat section afterwards. The flat section on the whole course is about half a mile long. With no mile marks to pace me, I went through with 2 laps left (about 10 miles to go, in 1:50. I was careful down the big hill (my quads were getting tight already) and then just held steady back up. Back through the aid with one lap left, I had about 42 minutes to make it under 3 hours, which would be a big deal on this course. I was really feeling terrible at this point, my hips and quads were starting to ratchet down, a la Boston, but not as bad. I got to the last turn and decided to see what I had left, and was actually able to really charge up the last hill to the finish in 3:02:30, a course record by I guess 4 minutes, though the old one is kind of suspect. Trish had a really rough day, the humidity and heat really got to her, but she was a trooper and finished anyway in 4:03, which is crazy considering she's never ran over 3 hours before. That race will eat you alive.
They don't have official results or pictures up yet, but I'll post them when they do.
