The start was gun timed so I made sure to get near the front. Found a guy that was gunning for the win and lined up right behind him. Start was very uneventful other that I was running a little faster than I wanted at the half mile mark so I made sure I slowed a bit trying to hit closer to goal pace (6:4x/m was the goal). The first hill thinned out the pretenders that were going out way too fast in the beginning. After the first hill, it was about 6 miles on flat greenway miles. Found a perfect pace partner as she was clicking off 6:40 splits on the dot. At the half way point I was hitting my splits dead on. Then my pacer picked up the pace and increased her splits to 6:30 for the second half so she slowly pulled ahead. I tried to get down to 6:35/m but I was pretty much in the groove where I was. Somewhere around mile 7 I got passed by a strong closer and that was the only time I had anyone pass me since the start. At mile 8 we turned off the greenway and then directly into a 20mph wind...that hurt. Then at mile 8.5 we had two cruel jokes. First a very steep hill which reduced run to shuffle. Then continue uphill, then another steep hill to get out of the neighborhood. Finially crested the hill and had a nice 1m very gradual downhill so I figured I would try and book it. Thought I might catch the pace girl in front of me until I saw her kick it into overdrive and she was actually pulling further away :) With no one else in sight, I just gave it a good effort and actually turned in my fastest split and also made up the time I lost on the hills. Crossed the line in pretty good shape. Final time 1:06:51 with an average pace of 6:39/m.

Nothing. With Big Sur 8 weeks out and IMFL training start 6 weeks out, this was perfect timing and perfect distance one last hard run.

Quickly picked up my extra clothes and grabbed a frozen bagel and banana. Thought I would be close to AG award so I hung around until the official results were posted. 4th in AG. Close but no cigar. I was still very happy overall with my performance.


I really enjoyed this inaugural 10 mile race. They do have some things to work on: more porta-potties, bagels at 37 degrees were like rocks, and I prefer a chip start line, not gun start line. I really liked that they started the 4 miler runners 15 minutes before the 10 milers so they were outta the way. Challenging course as the hills are at extremelly painful spots in a race. I can easily see this event growing into a much bigger event (but 350 for inaugural race is pretty decent).