The energy of the group starting out helped to sweep me up and out of the start area. I looked at Garmin and realized I was running at under 8 minutes per mile and knew I couldn't sustain that for 6.2 miles. I also knew many of the women around me couldn't maintain that pace either, so as soon as we got stretched out along a straight, I settled into my own pace. I pretty much ran my own race. I had done a 40 mile bike ride the day before so my legs weren't fresh at all. As we came through on our second loop I saw there was a "real" bathroom right at the fair exit and for a short time considered stopping in there, but I knew it would mess with my time. My time was more important than emptying my bladder! :) Last 1/2 mile was on the track and it wasn't as bumpy as last year. The only thing that was frustrating were the 5K walkers that we had to weave in and out of on the last 2 miles. I followed another 10K runner as she helped to "part the seas" so we could get through. I did run through several groups and said excuse me. I applaud anyone who's out there, walker, runner, whatever, so I didn't want to be rude to them. I DID want to get a PR though and planned to run whether anyone was in the way or not!

If I could have rested my legs and/or tapered but wasn't in the plan for that week. This was a "training run." I wonder how much faster I'd be, or if I would be faster, tapering into it.

Saw husband. Drank a couple of water bottles. Saw my time and was pretty estastic. I took 10 or 11 minutes off my last year's 10K time. Niiice.


Iron Girl does a great job. They seem to start a bit late, but all goes smoothly and they have great swag and volunteer support. I liked the individual post race breakfast bags, too!