I ran my last race of the "season"...hopefully...this weekend. This was the NCUSATF 5k championship race at the Beat the Heat 5k in Winston-Salem. I have to say, for a reasonably small race, this was one of the best organized and all-around awesome little races I've ever run. Mostly because of all the post-race food and free beer. W-S is Bobby's hometown, and he was there to defend his title and shoot for the course record bonus. For some reason they provided us with a rabbit - W-S native Jack Anderson, who runs at William and Mary. The plan was to take Bobby through the mile in 4:30, and my plan was to hang on for dear life. The first quarter mile or so was mostly uphill, and then took a pretty quick nose dive to the mile mark. We hit it in exactly 4:30. I wasn't feeling great, but I felt better than I thought I would. The second mile was almost entirely uphill, and Bobby pushed pretty hard to try to stay on pace, I faded quite a bit, and hit 2 miles in 9:20. Luckily the last probably half mile was an smooth downhill, and I was able to at least press my pace back down some into the finish. I was second to Bobby in 14:37, and he got the course record in 14:14. Devin from RRO was next in 14:58, and luckly (for me, not him) Ryan Woods from Boone did something to his calf and didn't finish - though he was coming pretty hard in the last mile. The next race I plan on doing is the state and national championship for 10k trail race in Laurel Springs at the end of August. It should be fun as long as I don't break my ankle or anything. I'm sure I'll also learn a lesson or two about what it takes to race on trails.