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Comments: The race started right on time. My plan was to take it easy for the first 5k loop and then see what I could do for the second. I settled into a nice pace pretty quickly and even though it was a bit chilly at the start, I warmed up nicely. There’s not much to look at on this course but they had a band playing along the way which helped. Due to the way the course was laid out, the 5k’ers passed the band twice and the 10k’ers passed them 4 times. I had my Garmin but didn’t look at it, I was just running by feel. That worked out pretty well – I was surprised to see how even my splits were when I checked it after the race. The first 3 miles went really well. I was feeling good and just running easy. As I was coming up to the turnaround point to head out for my second loop, there was a guy coming back towards us saying “almost done”. I had to correct him and say “almost halfway done”. I got to the turnaround at exactly 33 minutes and started out again. First goal was met – the winner of the 10k hadn’t lapped me! Still feeling good and still running. The only time I had walked was through the water stops – I still haven’t mastered drinking from a cup while running and given the temp that morning I didn’t want to spill it all down the front of me. The second loop was a little tougher. There weren’t as many people on the course (the majority of people had done the 5k) but the 2 guys in costumes on bikes were riding around giving encouragement to those of us still out there. Around mile 5.5 is when my legs started feeling it a little bit. I took a short walk break to give them a bit of a rest and get them ready to run in the rest of the way. Picked up the running again and finished pretty strong. Crossed the finish at 1:07:59 – a new PR by more than 4 ½ minutes! Met my second goal for the day! What would you do differently?: Not much - this turned out to be a good race for me.  Post race
Warm down: Got some water and a bagel and walked for a bit then went over to check the results. I was pretty sure I hadn’t met my third goal since a lot of people finished the 10k in front of me. Found out that Irwin had finished 2nd in his age group for the 10k so went to find him and congratulate him. All of the results weren’t posted yet so I still wasn’t sure how I had done. I was starting to feel a little chilled so went back to my car to put on a warm, dry sweatshirt. By the time I got back, the rest of the results had been posted and I was surprised to see that I had placed 2nd in my AG! I guess this year the faster runners had decided to do the 5k instead, lol. Waited around for the awards ceremony (which lasted forever and was a little disorganized), got my medal and headed for home. What limited your ability to perform faster: My inherent lack of speed:). Event comments: Overall, it was a great morning. My only disappointment was that my DD didn’t join me in the race. I was hoping she would come out to do the 5k, but after running in her XC meet the day before (her school team did very well – won first place in 3 of the 4 divisions) and then spending the night with a friend, it just wasn’t in the cards. Maybe next time. Last updated: 2009-09-22 12:00 AM
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United States
40F / 4C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 78/89
Age Group = F45-49
Age Group Rank = 2/3
What a great race! This was my third year doing this particular race although I had done the 5k the previous 2 years and this year I decided to go for the 10k. The weather all week had been pretty ugly – overcast (we hadn’t seen the sun in almost a week), rainy and cold so I wasn’t sure what to expect for Saturday morning. Ironically, the RD had moved the race up about 4 weeks from past years to try to take advantage of better weather. The past 2 years had been cold and very windy. Temperatures this year were about the same – lower 40’s – but the winds were fairly calm so that was a plus.
The race was also being held at a new location this year. They’re hoping to attract more runners so moved to a location that would be able to accommodate a larger group of people. The new course was advertised as “flat and fast”. Fast is a relative term so I can’t comment on that, but it definitely is a flat course. I don’t think it could have been flatter if we had run on a track. I have a feeling that once word gets out about the course, this race probably will attract a lot more runners in the future.
So I get there about ½ hour before start time, use the bathroom and walk around for a bit. They did the balloon release, said a prayer and sang the national anthem. Then it was time to line up for the start. As I’m looking for a place to line up I thought I saw Irwin up ahead of me, but didn’t have time to go talk to him. I figured I’d try to catch him after the race. I had 3 goals in mind for this race. 1) I wanted to be started on my second loop (the 10k was 2 loops of the 5k course) before the winner of the 10k crossed the finish line. I got lapped last year by the 10k winner right before I finished the 5k so I wanted to try to “beat” him this year. 2) I was hoping to set a new 10k PR. Given the flat course, I thought I had a pretty good chance at this one. 3) Based on last year’s times, I had hopes of placing in my AG although that would depend on who showed up for the race and which race they did.