(Photos by Teri Bernhardt-Rodriguez)
Mission accomplished. I won the King Of The Hill invitational.
The race was amazing and got off to a fast start. The lead group featured Tsion Yared, Nicole Matysik, and Valerie Lastra, as well as a pack of Pine Crest girls, and myself. My strategy was to get out early and hope they would follow. Some of those girls have good kicks so I wasn't going to fall for a slow pace and try to come from behind. I found that out the hard way last year at states with Caitlin Collier in the 1,600 and 3,200.
I knew the fast pace would take the kick out of all who followed. I think the first mile was around 5:34,that's pretty good considering we had to hit the hill on the first loop.That's where I made my move on the hill. This is my home course so I was going to do everything in my powers to win .I knew I had to be sharp and run a smart race.
I shot up the hill with the other girls in pursuit. I'm a strong climber so I knew I had the edge. By the time we came down the hill i had built a 15 meter lead and I wasn't going to give it up easy. After two miles, I was up about 60 meters with Lastra and Yared in tow. The race wasn't over though. The girls surged making their move, but I was in cruise control they narrowed the gap with 300 to go. Time to shift gears. I put it into high gear and pulled away the last 200 meters to win by 20 seconds. Just as I predicted it took a course record to win it. All three of us broke the old course record. Incredibly enough I ran 54 seconds faster than last year. I broke the course record by 44 seconds and set a new PR of 18:29 on a very challenging course.
Not a bad day's work. Second win this year on two challenging courses. I have to give it to Columbus high School and Coach Eric Pino. They have the sweetest trophies for individual winners. This year's field was stacked with quality athletes.
Hopefully next year will attract even more runners. If you're one of the top runners you need to be here next year. What a day.I think if I was running in one of the faster courses like Spanish River i could have challenged the 18 minute mark, but I'm not running there this year. Thanks coach.
All kidding aside congratulations to all the girls who competed today and made this race the incredible event that it was. Monday it's back to work and a slooooooooooow recovery run at 7:30, then the beach.
