Had a surprisingly good race yesterday. Finished 24th overall and 3rd in AG with a time of 1:23.45. A new PR by 15 seconds. Looking back through my training I really can't believe I ran that well. I tried to go into this race with no expectations but did want to run well. A difficult balance to achieve for sure. Started off relaxed and went out in 6:40. Then had a nagging blister on back of left heel and stopped at Mile 5 to grab a bandaid. It ended up not helping as my shoe was soaked in blood at the finish. Ran a 6:00 mile from 5-6 attempting to catch up with the pack I was in but then settled back into 6:25 pace. Mile 9 was tough with some sharp hills and lots of turns but going in from there the pace steadily picked up. Finished with 5:55 last mile and felt pretty good. I gave up a few seconds as there was a challenged walker finishing in front of me at the line and I didn't want to be the guy that sprints past a walker at the line. I was really amazed by teammate, Mark Miller, that ran a 1:22 after doing 2 Ironmans in the last month.