I try not take this race too seriously - or at least, I regret when I do. The one year I trained hard, I went out fast and got injured, and had to walk the last 3 miles. I'm better off treating this like an end-of-year running party, in this final (10th) year for the NWLB team
For more casual treatment, in 2016, I drove to and from Yuma the day before for a friend's funeral, and this year, I was in NYC visiting Sarah, Matt, and Mayer (now 8 weeks old!) and flew home the afternoon before. But it all worked out fine. We had perfect weather and I got to run with a lot of good friends. I finished in 2:07:30 (19/38 division, 323/513 men, 611/1138 overall, 9:44 pace, so right around the median for the older guys), and this year's time was a good 3+ minutes faster than last year. I did a 2:05 in 2016, and maybe that's in reach for next year - but next year, I age up to the next division, where instead of 19th, this year I would have been 7th. Full results, and some pictures, here. NWLB won the 5K team event, and placed third for the half marathon (not that my time had anything to do with that accomplishment).