I was glad I drove the course the day before so that I knew how hilly it was and could pace myself. I was going good to Mayhew Rd but then I got a nasty stitch. I walked a little, stretched, and then decided I should try shallow breathing with a double exhale. That seemed to work. Didn't bother me after that. I was pretty slow up the hills, but turned it on going down so I made up for it. Was able to kick it in a bit at the end. Had a good assortment of tunes with a good beat for the middle of the race to keep me going. Then I knocked the headphone plug out of the ipod for the last 1/2 mile. But I made a great mental effort in this race--patting myself on the back for keeping it up. And the distance felt really good.

Probably nothing. I was about 2 min slower than the 10K I ran last year but I trained for that race. I'm in good shape from tri season even tho I run shorter distances than 10Ks. This race was a training run on the way to the Monster Dash half marathon and I had no expectations but to run moderately hard and come in smiling. I did that and took some hardware home, so that's cool. And I didn't have to travel since it was a mile away.

I jogged for about 1/4 mile, stretched a little.


I hold myself back so I don't get my HR too high--and it was plenty high. I lost the data but it was in the 170-180s.

No pain!! (Stitch doesn't count)


This was Graniteman's first running-only race and was pretty well organized with good volunteer support and it was on roads that are lightly traveled. Jerry the announcer is always fun. Pickle Events is a good timer. The awards are nice--Granite plaques and everyone gets a finisher medal. But the race is as expensive as any other race so I find it annoying that they sold t-shirts that they should give away. No thanks. Advertisement should be paid for by the business, not the customer. Sweatvac was a sponsor and gave out hats. Fruit, Heed, and packaged cookies at the end. Fun door prize raffle too. Wished they'd done all the awards at the end-I wanted to see my friends finish the half and see other friends get their awards. Awards announcements competed with the half marathon announcements of finishers. It was their first time doing this race so some of these issues will probably get addressed next time. And the pros outweigh the cons, so I'll probably do this race again especially it is local and I liked the course.