Tonight’s race felt different than the past two years – I think I’ve finally learned that the distance isn’t really meant to be a full-out sprint (at least for my desired times). I still felt tired halfway through (which I passed right at 3:00), but I didn’t get hurt and I actually had a small kick at the end. The wind helped, although it was too cold for my shorts and T-shirt.

My official chip time was 6:10.6, which was a ten second PR. I also achieved my other goals of beating Megan (6:58.7), not re-injuring my knee and having a beer afterwards at The News Room. Lots of fast runners this year, as I was 441 out of 2528 finishers.

Megan had a rough night and sounded like she was going to cough up a lung afterwards. She also had the added weight of my phone in her pack, which was really my secret plan to slow her down and retain a perfect 3-0 record. I’m convinced my days are numbered, though, and a 100-mile gauntlet was thrown down too. Hmm…

It was really nice meeting new people tonight. We visited with a bunch of people from Allina and Medtronic and I finally got to meet Kat (@kljwm) in real life before the race. Minnesota Twitter runners are the greatest – sorry I didn’t get to meet more of them before or after.

I think my goal for 2014 will be a sub-6. It was so great to see fives on the timer when I turned the corner and I was a little disappointed I wasn’t closer this year. But as Megan said, don’t be “that guy” who just got a PR and is still upset. Very, very happy with things overall.

Next registered race is the State Fair Milk Run 5K, although it looks like our Ragnar team is coming together. TCM and Disney after that, but I’m sure something else will pop up before then too.