Nothing feels quite the same as the first race of a season. Fitness is untested, it's been a while since the last trip into "the zone," and for me, it's usually cold. Today's race did not disappoint. Matt and I were up early and driving to Novi in nasty conditions, hoping the race would still be held. It was in and around a shopping center, which was just being plowed when we arrived. We got ourselves settled, warmed up and drilled. I had to pee right before the start (unusual for me), and almost missed the start. I quickly stripped out of my sweats less than two minutes before the gun went off - not exactly the best way to begin. However, I settled into a hard pace and let things play out from there.

At about the 1-mile mark, a couple guys who were with me charged (I later found out one was Ian Forsythe, a local running stud) and put five seconds on me in short order. Unperturbed, I enjoyed a temporary strong tailwind to coast just a bit and relax as I mentally braced for a tough third mile.

After hitting the turnaround, we were blasted with a frigid, snow-blowing, 10-15 mph wind that was downright nasty. We were also heading uphill, so the sensible thing to do at the time would have been to cruise through it, expending a minimal amount of energy. Fortunately, I'm not sensible, so instead I threw in a wild surge up the hill. My eyes stung and teared up from the blowing snow, and I was redlining. The effort was worth it, however, because I chewed up the space between myself and second place, and passed him with about half a mile to go. I hung on for dear life, hearing footsteps behind me and fearing a retaliatory surge, but none came.

The race computer died in the horrible weather, so finish times were lost. By all accounts, I was anywhere from 16:30 to 16:45, not a bad start for this early in the season and factoring the conditions. I was also within sight and almost within contact of first place until the very end, which is a lot closer than I was to him at last year's Shamrocks race.