I started off way too fast, probably in part because I got thrown off by all the 5k folks tearing into it. I really should not have let that first mile get so fast. One of the nice things about the Garmin is that I can tell right away how I'm pacing -- it's stupid not to use that information wisely.

Anyway, the first mile was pretty packed and there were a lot of speedy kids out there! This one little girl was pacing me for a while (she had very, very heavy feet, so I knew she was there) and finally sped by me, huffing and puffing. I wanted to throw some encouragement at her when I finally passed her, but she looked like she'd bite my head off if she thought I was patronizing her so I let it go.

After the first mile the crowd thinned out and I tried to slow down. I did better and was averaging 8:15 or so, which is a little too speedy for me, but I was feeling good so I figured why not see how long I could hold it. For most of the second and third mile I was pacing a guy who seemed to be just a tad slower than my body wanted to go, but was closer to what I knew I should be running.

I realized at the 5k halfway point that this was going to be a confusing race. They split off the 5kers and sent them on a different path, and then the 10k path started winding around and taking weird turns. At the halfway point there wasn't exactly a turnaround, but we went on a wide loop that sent us back in the direction we'd come from. Then we passed a water station, ran a few hundred yards, and all of a sudden there were a couple of signs saying "10k turnaround."

So OK, "10k turnaround" seems obvious. But since we'd just come from a place that was at the halfway point and felt like a turnaround, and we were running in the direction of the finish line, we were very confused. And by "we" I mean me and two guys I'd been running with. The three of us slowed down and looked at each other and asked what we were supposed to do. In hindsight, well yeah, you turn around at the turnaround. For whatever reason that didn't seem right (and I later learned that other racers had the same problem), so we kept going, but after a couple hundred yards we looked back and saw other racers turning around, so we realized we'd screwed up.

In all, I lost maybe a minute here, which is annoying but whatever. I don't think I lost a place, as I noted exactly how many women passed me while I was "lost", and I'm positive I caught up to all of them (I had fun picking them off, one at a time). But I do think I lost some momentum, because I had a really, really tough time getting back to a solid pace after that screw up.

From there, the race got pretty grueling. I was feeling really tired and breathing way too hard, but I only had a couple miles left and I kept repeating to myself that two miles is nothing, one mile is nothing, etc. With about a mile left one of the 5k guys passed me going the other way -- he was clearly doing a cooldown run and just jogging along. He called out that I was looking good, then turned around and followed me a bit (at a nice, respectful distance), which I actually really appreciated since it was pretty motivating and I reminded myself that I wanted to finish strong.

In the last half mile it felt like I was running all alone -- I couldn't see anyone ahead of me, and I couldn't feel anyone behind me. I sped up for the finish, and maybe 50 yards from the end I heard feet stomping behind me and realized someone was racing me to the end. No way was I going to let him beat me to the finish. So I got my sprint on and beat him by a second. Fun!

At the finish, I saw that it was the guy I'd been pacing for most of the race. I hadn't even realized I'd passed him, heh. I congratuled him and thanked him for pushing me, and he just laughed and said he'd really wanted to beat me.

Actually turn around when the signs tell me to turn around. Not run an 8:05-minute-mile right out of the gate, even/especially when everyone else is speeding past me (ie, not eat the paste). Other than that, considering I ran this race on a whim and I'd been training pretty hard and feeling pretty tired lately, I'm pleased with how I did.

I sat around for about 30 minutes watching the raffle and the awards for the 5k and 10k. There was lots of Indian food to eat, but I'm never hungry right after a race, so I skipped it, which sucks because it looked really yummy. I eventually got up and finished my scheduled run for the day with a three-mile cooldown.


Training pretty hard lately and doing nothing special to prepare for this race.


I have to score this race a little low due to the confusion on the course. If it had just been me who messed up, I would've entirely blamed myself for missing the turnaround. But there were three of us who got screwed up while I was running, and I talked to at least three other people after the race who also got confused (and lost time), and who said others had made the same mistake. With such a twisty-turny course, they really needed to put volunteers at almost every turn. The organizers had lots of volunteers, but they were all bunched up in three or four spots and they ddn't seem to be paying much attention to what was going on.