Overall I had a great run. Last few races haven't gone well. I've either been too conservative or not pushed myself when things got hard. So the plan for this race was to hard and either hang on or learn what it felt like to really blow up. Kind of a ridiculous plan I realize but this was supposed to be a learning experience. In the end I did something something pretty close to the hang on plan. Also wanted to set a new VDOT value cause the training paces I've been using just seem to easy.

I started out near the front and ran 6:45/mile for about the first 1/3 of a mile. I didn't think I could hold this but didn't want to try to reign it in like past races. I ended up holding this until the first hill then slowed (due to the hill) to around 7:15ish. Came off the top of the hill and tried to keep in in the 7:00-7:15 range because this felt really good. Got jammed up on the stretch near Avalon prior to the turn on to 108. We were running on the shoulder/parking lane and there was about 5 of us at nearly the same speed. I couldn't really pass anyone without being really aggressive and pushing through. Ended up slowing down a bit until one guy broke through and I jumped on his tail. Actually got excited when my legs felt a little tired going up the hill on 108 so I tried to pick it up a little. In reality I didn't really pick it up but was able to keep it around 7:30 for the whole length of the hill and passed quite a few people. Tried to pick up the pace for mile 5. It felt like I was but looking at my splits it looks like I just got back to my pace prior to the hill. Felt great when I saw the "Mile 5" sign so I tried to pick it up again, really happy with the 6:55 split for that mile. Really tried to pick it up when we turned back onto Little Patuxent for the last stretch. Looked at my watch right at the end and I was doing nearly 6:00! Granted the was just the last 200 meters or so but I was booking!

Overall very happy with the race. Training (see below) would have helped also would have run a little more aggressively at the start and when I got jammed up behind people.

Drank some water. Ran into Brian and chatted a bit. Looked for Brent but couldn't find him. Got cold waiting for Kirk so went back to my truck to get pants and jacket.


Not really training or knowing what a reasonable goal was. I loosely followed the Hal Higdon marathon recovery plan and signed up for this as a way to stay motivated to keep training after Shamrock. I had done a few 20 minute tempo runs at 7:30/mile on the treadmill and was hoping to try to hold this. Would definitely like to train more specifically for a 10k and see how I can do.


Pretty big local race, 1000+ people. HoCo Striders did a good job organizing it and Clyde's did a great job with the post race chow. Lots of fruit, bagels, etc plus some hot food (looked like pasta and soup). Also had beer, but 9:30 on a Sunday seemed a little early for that. HoCo police provided a lot of support keeping roads closed.

HoCo Striders posts the results based on clock time and chip time separately and don't list things by age group. Not sure why but no big deal. (My time above reflects chip time.)

Definitely will do this again and see why it is a popular race.