Well, the race is over, along with a crazy bachalor party filled weekend...  The race went pretty good.  I did not hit my goal time, but I can't complain.  I went 1:20:49, 8th overall, and 3rd in my age group.  It was a very well organized race and I will def be running it again in the future.  Dave the race director announced that I was back on my two week R and R from Iraq which started another applause when I went up for my award which was very nice of him to do.  He is one cool cat!!  For the first time I was called, "a stud muffin" from a group of ladies behind me at the award ceremony, so that was interesting...  My best friend Jeremy was unable to make it because we had a golf tourney for him, (which I was able to make it back for by the 5th hole) that afternoon, but one of my co-workers daughter goes to UNI and wanted to come and cheer me on, so that was sweet of her.  She is one of my snowboarding buds too, but no snow for this guy for a while.  The weather was perfect and I was ready to go from the start, I went out a little too hard (4:51 pace) and then realized how fast we were going and slowed way down to my race pace.  I stayed there until around mile 9 then started to fall off pace.  I think missing some of those longer runs played against me...anyways, no complaints, I hit mile 10 at 60:19 so I am def going to need to improve if I want to run a fast Army 10 miler back in Iraq, after which I am going to take a little brake and give the legs a rest.  I have been going strong for a while now and I think the legs are due for a little R and R themselves.

All in all, this was a great race, I had an awesome time, and I look forward to the rest of my break along with some more quality time with the fam and friends.

See you on the roads,

Sherrod out :)