Today I ran in my first Great Race ever. The Great Race is a multi-race event in it's 28th year in the city of Pittsburgh, (home of the Steelers). It was just me and about 8000 of my closest friends running a 10K course from my house down to Point State Park, a total of 6.2 miles.

It was my first 10K running race...the only other time I've run that far (and known about it) was 2 weekends ago at teh triathlon. The difference is that today, I had not preceeded the run with 1 mile of swimming and 24 miles of bike riding. I was curious to see what my real running pace would be without the pre-run effort.

We crossed the finish line with just over a 12 minute mile pace, which is just fine with me, we did it without any walkng breaks, also a first for me. My limiter is definately my joints, as opposed to my aerobic capacity, I don't think my heart rate ever got much above 130, but my back started to cramp a bit between miles 3 & 4. The best part of the race is coming off of Forbes avenue onto the Boulevard of the Allies where you can see about 2 miles straight. The entire four lane road is packed side to side with runners, as far as you can see all the way into the city. It's an amazing sight!

The finish was right into Point State Park, where the fountain is and it was beautiful.

If you watch the Steelers vs. Patriots game today, they are guaranteed to show some pictures of "The Point" with the glorious fountain. How I wish I had the rest of the day off..I'd buy myself a battery powered TV at walmart, go down to teh point with a couple of brews and watch the game on TV while listening to the roar of the crowed just across the river.

But alas, work calls.

Endurance training