New Strategy this year. Went out closer to my average 10K pace from the very beginning, instead of killing it and then hanging on until the end. I didn't set my Garmin correctly, so it never gave me my average overall pace, it gave me my INSTANT pace....grrrr...so I really had to watch my splits, like the days of ole. First 2 miles were weird...holding back and letting so many people go ahead of me...but I felt very comfortable and didn't feel like I was pushing the least. Coming up on mile 3, I realized I was falling off my pace a bit, so I put on some speed and entered the "uncomfortable" zone. It wasn't painful, but now I was pushing. Went over the bridge into Newport, and from then on I kept my speed up a bit. The course was measuring out to be long. I was dead on pace according to my Garmin, but the mile markers were almost 100 yards or more long. Just enough to screw up my finish time...so I had to push a bit harder if I wanted to stay under 40. Made it over the bridge into Covington, and kept the pace. Hills and bridges don't slow me down much anymore for some reason, and I actually speed up sometimes. I hit the bridge to take me back into Cincy and started to feel a bit winded, but knew I had less than 1.5 miles to go. I pushed on, over the hump of the bridge and then started down the other side. Ok...time to put on a bit more speed and hold on until the end. The COURSE CLOCK showed me close to my goal, so I pushed harder. I could hear the finish line announcer on the next street over and kept passing more people. Hold on. Hold on. I pushed around the corner, made another turn, and had the finish line ahead of me about 1/4 mile away. I checked my watch...I'd get under 40, but by how much I didn't know. I put on the last bit of speed that I had. I hit the finish line and hit my watch. It showed my time as the EXACT same time I had last year, but when I checked the OFFICIAL results, it showed me 2 seconds faster...so I'll take it. ONE year older and 2 seconds faster. Good enough.
Conor came in with Mary at 1:20:12...his first 10K! AWESOME!!! Not bad for my 9 year old!!!! We keep adding to the Family Tradition. If I counted right..this is my 30th time doing this race. Geez...what the hell does THAT say? I KNOW what that says.

Nothing. Goal accomplished. Under 40...faster than last year.

Waiting for family to finish.


The spin of the globe.


First time they made some of the parking lots PAY lots....screwed things up a bit...but we will adjust for next year.