I felt so excited and emotional, like always, crossing that starting line. I'm so blessed and so happy to be out here running, especially such a cool bucket-list type of race like this one, the biggest 10K in the world!

It was not nearly as congested as I had mentally prepared for in the start. The way they had seeded people and spaced out the waves was perfect. The first half of this race is very much downhill, so I was feeling super great, but knew I would be paying for it eventually. I intentionally took in all I could during this part, looking up at the fancy highrise condos, high-fiving the tri club cheerleaders at their cheering spot at mile 2, getting emotional seeing an elderly man in his veterans hat waving a huge American flag. The patriotism was loud and proud and I loved all of it.

The weather was hot and humid, as expected. I am a very heavy sweater, so was soaked and flinging sweat very early on. My ponytail got so wet and icky in the first couple of miles that I had to pull over and stop to tie it up in a bun so it wouldn't cling to my back for the rest of the race.

Around mile 3 is where "cardiac hill" starts, and I'm not really sure how far the actual hill is measured because there was a big hill, then a flattening off, then another few big hilly sections till well after the 4-mile marker. After that, it was a little up and down, but more manageable. I did walk up portions of the hills, but not nearly as much as many of the people around me. A good goal for next year would be to run up all of the hills!

Even though I was carrying my own water, I was impressed with the frequency of the water stations, fire hoses and cooling misters. The crowds were amazing (lots of people drinking!), everyone was festive and happy and it was just such a great race.

I crossed the finish line really happy with my pace, considering I had walked about half of the hills, and just so happy to be out here.


Nothing!

Michele had told me that the tri club meets up at the family reuinuin area under the "T" banner, so I headed that way to see if anyone was still around. One of the club guys who lived a few blocks away was having a post-party, and we had talked about stoping by. I found Michele, her son, Nicole from Saturday and a handful of other tri club people and it was so nice to have friends to chat with. We all decided we were a bit too nasty and sticky for a party, so all headed to the train station together. Which was, not kidding, almost a 2-mile walk uphill.

Got home around 11 a.m., made lunch and took a 3-hour nap :)


Heat, Humidity and Hills.


The largest 10K in the world does not disappoint! An AMAZING race that nails all of the details. Highly recommend!