Aetna Park to Park 10-miler - Run10 Mile

Even having worked my way up in the crowd at the start, it took a good while before I crossed the startline. Then, I just tried to keep a rather steady pace the whole run. The big hill only slowed my pace by about 12 seconds, so I was happy with that.

In one of the parks we ran through, there was a guy with a german-shorthaired, just like our pup, watching the race. I thought about asking him to borrow her for a few miles for a pace boost!

The race organizers had said there would be 3 aid stations (every 2.5 miles) with water and gatorade (which there were, plus an extra station with just water just before the mile 4 marker), so I carried 2 bottles on my fuel belt with Gu20, which I sipped from half-way in between each aid station. At the aid stations I drank water. Before the race, I had decided not to carry my gel flask (which can be bulky), and instead to just take the gel packets I had with me. Unfortunately, I only had 2 packets, so I took one at the first aid station, and one at the third. I probably could have used one at the middle aid station, which is pretty evident by the sluggish mile I had at mile 8

The last 2 miles were in Wash Park, and these felt pretty strong. The last mile was a sub-9:00 mile (fast by my standards), although I don't know the exact pace because I forgot to stop my watch for awhile after crossing the finish. Even so, my watch had me at an average pace of 9:19 overall (so I'm guessing my actual average was somewhere around 9:16/9:17). Considering a year ago I couldn't break a 10:00 pace in a 5k, I'm thrilled!

Bring one extra gel packet. I don't know how strict runners do it with so little fuel!

Light jog for a minute, then grabbed my bag and changed into my new crocs (so cute--love them!). Next, I grabbed a ton of food and started stuffing my face, while waiting in line for a massage. Unfortunately, the line was moving so slowly that I had to give up.


Genetics and limited fuel.


This was the first year for this event, and it went very well. One more aid station on the second half of the run would have been nice, and some signs pointing towards the shuttle bus pick up to take us back to the start should be added (it took me 45 minutes to find the bus). Otherwise, the race was well-run, with a nice post-race area offering live music and plenty of food, including chocolate fondue courtesy of the Melting Pot!