Getting stuck in the port-o-potty line was a blessing. The other runners were nice and thinned out by the time I hit the course. This meant I was passing people through pretty much the entire race. For the first 1/2 of the race, I tried to stay relaxed and keep my splits close to 9:00. I knew that adrenaline would give me a fast 10th mile. So, at the mid-way point when I saw I was on pace to meet my goal, I tried to push miles 6-9 harder.

I felt like I ran a good race. My splits were steady and I flew through mile 10. Next time around, I'll just have to keep my average pace just a little faster.

Uh. Warm down? There was a little walking around to pick up my gear bag and cheer for the 5K runners, but no real warm down to speak of.


As usual, fitness is still my big limiter. I just need to teach my body to run faster. I feel that I'm still getting improving as a runner, so hopefully next year I'll see even faster times.


The course was gorgeous, but fairly easy. There were only 2 minor hills to speak of. I'm not complaining. The flat course led to me beating my goal time.

They changed the course from an out-and-back to a point-to-point starting at Lake Nokomis and finishing at Lake Harriet. They were running a shuttle service back to Nokomis, but with several thousand runners and only a handful of buses, a lot of us ended up waiting close to 2 hours to get a lift. Hopefully, the RDs will learn from this and make improvements for next year.