Notes
Holy shit what a rough day. It was pretty hot and a lot hillier than I expected. I went out a little too hard, about 5:58 for the first mile, so I backed it off and rolled along a bit easier for a couple miles. I got a cramp at mile 2.5 or so (wtf, seriously?) and had to work through that. Then I cranked it back up a little too much, and took the hilly area harder than I probably should have. I paid for it big time starting around mile 9, where my slow decline began. I got another cramp (two in one race, fucking hell) and this one was really bad, so I definitely backed off. I held onto 6:30 or so pace for a while, but I couldn't stop from slipping, and my last mile was about 7:30. My legs felt like shit, and the last 4 miles was just a drag. Still, always nice to see Salem, and I did manage a top 10 finish so I guess that's cool.
Splits:
1. 5:58
2. 6:20 (cramp mile)
3. 5:58 (decent downhill)
4. 6:11
5. 5:48 (short? this could have been the biggest mistake)
6. 6:07
7. 6:28 (lots of hills)
8. 6:14
9. 6:41 (cramp mile)
10. 6:35
11. 6:22
12. 6:37
13. 7:25
and the last .1 was 1:06. I got my time as 1:23:58, but the official time was 1:23:50.
Interesting note: the 10 mile split (1:02:19) is only 14 seconds slower than my result from the Yankee Homecoming 10 miler in 2009.