Running the Hills of Letchworth

On sunday morning I went to Letchworth to run the Vail of Three Falls 10k. I finished the race in 66:24 which is the slowest of the five times I have run the course.

Last year I finished fifth overall in this race so I wanted to match my performance and go out strong. Things went pretty well for the big downhill that constitutes the first quarter of the race as I reached the bottom of the hill still in the top 10.

However after the start, a cough that I have had since last weekend came back in the middle of the race and really took my lungs away from me. I pushed through on the middle section but then had to walk the steep hill at the turn around. The return trip was more of the same with having to walk most of the hills including most of the large one at the end.

Despite being 13 minutes behind my time from last year I still finished in the top third of all runners and would have done even better if my lungs had worked.

My next race is the Buffalo Marathon next sunday.