Ann Arbor has been under a mini heat wave, with highs in the mid-60s this weekend. With a race start at 2:00 PM, this was guaranteed to be a warm one, but that seemed to work in my favor today, despite little heat acclimation. My plan was to train through this race and to run as well as possible, so I arrived at the line with few expectations (not unlike last weekend's time trial).

The start of the race was uphill, and after cruising past the fininsh chute for the first of three times, we flew back downhill. I was out front with several fast guys, including local stud Ian Forsythe, and he and I went through the one-mile marker at 5:00 flat. I felt pretty good, so I held the pace as best I could, shedding other runners in the process. Our two-mile split was 10:06, and then Ian simply dropped me like I was standing still. I was completely unable to respond to his acceleration, and just hung on as best I could to the pace.

The third mile was incredibly painful, but since I had no idea how close behind me the next runner was, I kept the pedal to the metal and powered up the last rise to the three-mile mark. I didn't have much of a sprint at the end, but I had put in enough effort to cruise across the line in 15:50, a new PR by 8 seconds. I took second place by one second over the fastest master's runner in town.

Like last weekend, I came away from the race feeling good about my training progress so far this year. Even if I don't run quite that fast again this year, I know that I am on track for some fast run splits in my duathlons, and that this new high-mileage program I have been on since the fall is paying off.