Super Half Marathon Race Recap

Colorado Springs has a wonderful and popular race every Super Bowl Sunday, including a half marathon and a 5K that start downtown, and finish a bit up the trail.
Afterwards, we are treated to beer at a local pub to get ready for the game.
Both Jess and I beat our times from last year by a minute or so which could be credited to some amazingly warm February weather in Colorado Springs hitting near 60 degrees.
My race started fast, too fast as always, and I soon found myself with last year's winner and the new eventual master's record holder quickly losing one of our Fossil teammates as he ran away for a commanding win and course record of 1:11.  My group had a much more conservative goal of sub 1:20 which would require a steady effort on the long 7 miles of gradual climbing followed by negative splits on the way back to town on the slight downhill.
At about 5 miles, we were approaching an underpass with a mostly blind turn, last year's winner was on the inside and a bike came flying around the turn.  He juked and leapt but came down awkwardly on his right leg.  He instantly had trouble putting weight through his knee.  We checked on him and he decided he just needed to walk back.  It was a heart-breaking to see such a talent get injured in a small race that he was in for fitness reasons only.  From that point on, I only had one person to race - the 50 year old who continued to yo-yo back and forth.
After the turn-around, with the heart rate drop of turning downhill, I felt the energy I had hoped to notice earlier in the race and started moving up.  No offense to 50 year old badasses like this guy out there, but I just had to win that head to head. It took more effort than I hoped at times but running the hills intelligently allowed my pace to drop about 15 seconds per mile.  This year on the bike and run I'm focusing on keeping my cadence during fatigue which feels great so far.  With no 20 mile runs under my belt yet, and 2 more months in Boston training, I am encouraged by a 17 mile day with 13 at Boston goal pace.  In the end, I pulled back from 10th to 6th overall for a finish just under 1:19.
Jess ran with multiple different friends who all ended up separating by mile 10.  I found her at mile 12 and we ran in for her finish and new personal course record.

After the race we joined the crew for a few brews and the presentation of the golden ball to our teammate for his epic win.  Another one of our teammates, dressed as John Elway!, handed off the balls to the winners which made for a great Fossil Brewer's Cup showing.  Our women's team won the team competition while the men's team was unable to defend last years victory and came in a mediocre second place to the Air Force Track Club.

Happy Running Friends!
Thanks to Fossil Craft Beer, TriSports, and Pikes Peak Sports for the support!