I started way up front and there were still a lot of slow people I had to weave through the first quarter mile. I was a bit frustrated the first half mile or so because my Garmin kept telling me I was running around an 8 min pace and I was aiming for sub 7. It turned out the skyscrapers were messing the Garmin up because my distance jumped from .3 to .6 really quickly and my pace switched from 8:15 to sub 4. Long story short, I hit the first mile marker in about 6:13. Whoops!

But I figured I might as well ride it out and hit mile two in around 6:30. At that point I decided the rest of the race would suck, but I could still PR (previous best was 44:52) hitting 7:15s the rest of the way. I have to say it was nice to hit the halfway point before the first bridge. I wasn't feeling great and I wasn't feeling bad... I was just sort of hanging onto the pace of those around me.

The water stop was in the same place as it always is but because of the course change it was around Mile 4.5 instead of Mile 3.5. I went ahead and walked the water stop and I was able to get back up to speed pretty quickly. The last bridge was much easier mentally because there was only a half mile or so to go once you crossed it. I'm a big fan of the new course.

I hung on and finished in 42:44, a PR by two minutes!

Maybe I should have ran the first two miles a bit slower but whatever. I'll take a 2 min PR in a 10K.

Walked back to Paul Brown Stadium, grabbed some water, walked back to the car, and was on 71 before 10AM.


I sorta of half assed my training for this. I'm still drifting after the Sept. marathon... only doing between 20 and 30 mpw.


The new course is great. This was the 10th year I've ran this race and I'm glad to see that even after 104 years the race organizers are still looking to improve.