Running race 1:40:30 [4] ***** 7.69 mi (13:04 / mi) +836m 9:46 / mi
slept:5.0 shoes: Inov-8 Oroc 280
Well, the 24 hours leading up to this were absolutely terrible. We were at the Black Sea the past few days and left yesterday after running a sprint in the afternoon. The original plan was to go straight to the hotel here at Bansko and we would've arrived around 10, BUT my grandmother has no concept of time or distance and insisted on imediately going home, so we drove there. Didn't leave home until almost midnight, with a four hour drive to here. 2am, huge damn pothole in the road with no warnings and there we are with two flat tires(along with two other cars). Some service guys with zero interest for other people are just sitting there knowing that cars will hit the hole and waiting to make some money...... They fixed the rims and we began again, and I finally went to sleep at 5:30 am. About 2 hours sleep in the car and 3 in a bed.
Well to the race, there weren't many people and I started slow dropping to the back from the beginning. At one point I passed a couple guys then was alone for a very long time wondering how far the next person was. Caught two boys and stayed ahead. Once we reached the huge mountain (at 5 miles) they started catching back up and eventually passed me. But they would stop and take breaks then sprint a few steps so I stayed right behind them. The climb just got steeper and steeper holy cow... Basically most of the climb at the end.
