I lined up in the wrong place and went off with wave 2. Although this was not my plan, I realized early that if I hit it hard at the start, I should be able to get in front of the wave and therefore have some room during the first couple of miles. The good news is this new found strategy for a wave start worked great -- I had lots of room. The bad new is I had no idea how fast I was running. Mile one split: 6:54. OMG! With no deliberate speed/interval work this season, I aspired to turn 8:20-8:30 mile splits. I wondered how much was this exuberant mile going to cost me?

Clearly, I had moved up into wave one by this point so I started looking for people with paces that would be reasonable to grab onto for the duration. This helped a lot, but I enjoy cruising down hills and there were a few in the first couple of miles. I had more fast splits.

My 5 mile split time was 38:36.25, giving ma pace of 7:43 per mile. At this point, I knew that I was going fade in the second half, but by how much? I watch people passing me in greater number so I knew I was slipping. But overall, the miles were still in the mid-8s so I was pleased.

My second 5 mile split was 41:40.73, for 8:20 per mile. When I consider that my last mile rolled off at 8:05, I know that I could have dug deeper in the second half and lowered the time. But, you certainly won't hear me complain. I went into the race hoping to run comfortably with an 8:20-8:30 average, so clearly I underestimated my running ability. (April Marathon base and bike work going into The Columbia gave me a gear that I didn't expect to have.)

It's been 3 decades since I've run a 10 miler faster than this, so I think it's time that I consider this a PR. (How long is a PR good for anyway?)

Perhaps hydrate a little more. Since everything that I'm doing right now is leading up to the JFK 50 Miler in the fall, I won't say do more speed work. For a 10 mile race, if I had done more speed/interval work ahead of time, I would have had a better sense of the pace I was keeping. Lacking such training, it was really a seat of the pants race.

The last thing I want this season is a calf tear. I had so many last year, my entire season was a bust. The JFK 50 is the goal so these shorter races are just a way to keep things fresh and enjoy racing events with my wife.

I walked for a couple of minutes, pulled the timing chips off of my bib then went back to meet up with my wife and run in with her. This provided me a nice 1 mile cool down which was really enjoyable. I love to cross the finish line with her: get a pic, a high-five, and a kiss. What could be better?


Other training commitments. I Ran 12 miles on Thursday as part of my scheduled plan. If this was an A race, I would have tapered and trained differently.


This was a very enjoyable course. The profile provided great variety for my legs. Trees along parts of the course provided more shade opportunities than I expected.

I've never participated in a foot race with a wave start. I am used to corral starting based on time, but sending off the crowd in smaller waves with a minute between waves was really nice. This definitely opened up the course. Wave starts are good!

Parking was a bit of an issue for those who did not arrive early. The volunteers tried hard, and there were plenty of them throughout the event. However, the parking logistics will probably always be an issue as everyone descends on the Zoo at the same time. Note to self, arrive early for this just as you would for the A-10. (We had a 10 minuter race hold, I don't know the reason, but I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't an effort to let more folks get parked and lined up.)

The finishers premium was a winter weight Fila pullover. I ordered a medium and needed a small. They had a swap table, but there were no smalls to be found. In the end, I swapped it for a women's large. I can't promise the fit, but the men's medium was a tent.

The post race event was good. I would have liked some sort of unprocessed food at the finish. A bagle, a banana, something. There was watermelon. Otherwise, everything I saw was packaged gel, nuts, etc. You also had to grab these items before you exit the finishers shoot. Catching food before I catch my breath is not a typical sequence for me. Once you exited the shoot, there was no re-entry. (Of course, I you went out and ran back in again...) There were a couple of beer coupons on the bib - nice. I also have to compliment the volunteers again. The trash around us was bagged a couple of times within the hour.

I've run the Annapolis 10 Miler 3 or 4 times, and I've never enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed the race today. I know that if we had experienced the same weather as a typical A-10, or Eagleman 70.3 I would not have enjoyed the run as much. In fact, thinking of those who did Eagleman last Sunday, I couldn't help but feel a little guilty. A 68 degree start in mid-June was amazing.

For me, the Baltimore 10 Miler is a keeper.