This course is quite challenging. It's about 50% loose gravel, 30% grass and another 20% asphalt. It winds all around the park doing many, many turns. Some of them 90 degrees and one of them was a full 180 degrees. Towards the beginning of the first loop there is a gravel hill that is short but pretty steep. If you charge up it too fast it saps your legs but if you go too slow your times will suffer. The rest of the course is rolling with some flat spots. The gravel was extremely difficult to get traction on. The loop is 5K so we did two loops.

Preface: I'm a minimalist runner, no watch, no headphones, no HR monitor. Racing purely on my senses or nonsense errr something.

My race plan was this: Be conservative on the first 5K and evaluate the course and come up with a plan for the second loop.

Godzirra and I lined up at the start and were BSing and then ON YOUR MARK GET SET ... BANG!!!!!!!!

Off we went! I was FOP for the first 100 yards or so and immediately put the brakes on. I had to remind myself that I was being conservative. I dropped back and some people went past me. There was a duathlon, a 5K and a 15K all going on at the same time so I had to do my best not to get caught up in their pacing and race my own race.

I was doing a good job. It felt comfortable hard and I was falling into a nice pace. Near the end of the first loop this girl passed me. Her arms were doing this really weird side to side thing and her breath was pretty labored. I really had to fight the urge to chase her down. After all it was the first loop and it was way too early to be chasing anyone. So I let her go.

I hit the 5K mark and looked at the clock. 27:30 minutes!?!?! WTF!?! Oh nooo!! I had a major sinking feeling. Then I realized it said 21:30. PHEW!!!!!! Alright now to assess and make a game plan for the second loop:

-Glide up the hills nice and easy
- FLY on the downhills and dig deep
-Make the asphalt my bitch (as it's the only surface where I could really get some good traction)

I was able to really execute on my second lap. The first 5K was difficult as it always is for me but I had really settle in for the second.

Unfortunately there was no one around me. I knew there was a pack of 5-6 guys ahead of me but knew they weren't catch-able. It's always nice when you have some people to actually race as it pushes you out of your comfort zone in a way you can't do yourself. Oh well. I just had to work on executing.

Throughout the whole race I was self-evaluating. Fast feet, tighten the core, keep your hips forward, stop lifting your chin, relax your shoulders, breath easy, god-dammmmmit stop lifting your chin (bad habit.)

Just as I was approaching the 180 turn around about 1/2 mile before the finish I saw lateral-arms-Mcgee! She was keeled over catching her breath. She was pretty much the only female I saw during the entire race. I hit the 180 and then turn it on. She had started walking again but veeerrrry slowly. I flew by her.

I really turned it on and had a great finish.

This was a small race so an OA win was great but not totally an indicator of my ability.

I think with a little more experience I could beat those guys, too. I finished 6th including the men.

-get faster

Went and had a HUGE hamburger and a beer with Godzirra then went to my niece's first bday party!! Talk about an endurance event! Sheeesh!!!!


Lack of 10K experience


Very small race, no finisher medals, no awards, no t-shirts. It's also only like $15 bucks and I really like it. A very nice break from the big races.