Race Report for Cactus Cha-Cha 2008

The race was great, it started off cold (for us thin blooded humans). It started off almost on time. First Lori was part of the 5K wave, and she did awesome. She ran the entire time, with out her ankle giving her any trouble.
The called the 7 miler group to the start and I headed for the middle of the pack. Chad headed for the back of the pack. Within 1/4 mile Chad had passed me, so I just paced my self off of him. We got to a sign that indicated it was 1 mile for the mini-cha-cha. They take an additional loop so it was only about .7 miles in for us. It caught some people off guard that there was the first mile. I continued to pace behind Chad for a few more minutes, then I continued to pass him up the hill. I never looked back for him after that, I just focused on running the best I can for the entire time. At about mile 3.2 we encounter 4 switchbacks and the person that was following behind me asked if I was going to run the entire way up. I said "you bet I am" I then asked the only person in front of me if they were going to run up them and the person just got out of the way and I took off up them. At about 3\4 of the way up, I came upon a large group of people that were briskly walking so I just fell in behind them for about one minute. When I crested they all seemed to pull off to catch their breath, and I took off down the other side of the mountain. I was out of the technical area and along a flat area, so I looked down at the distance and it read 4.88 miles, then BOOM, down I go. Got the knee and wrist banged up, but I do not think I missed a beat, I was up and going, only this time focusing on the trail. I then came across the finish line at 1:12:58. 5 minutes better than last year and a new PR for me. Oh yea, Wes I did beat Chad, but that will be short lived (I will gloat in the mean time).


In the morning I head to this:















To go here: