Was able to see someone from this website - Mike Ricci - but didn't realize it until later.

I decided that I would take my time during the first mile to get settled in and not press the pace too hard. I felt OK by the first mile as I passed it in 6:02-6:03. Just after the first mile marker I passed another runner who asked me what I had timed my first mile. I told him and he thanked me and I continued on. I tried to keep myself under control and not start pressing just yet so I attempted to keep my same cadence along with keeping my breathing under control. It must have worked because I came across the second mile about 12:06 which was a bit slower than I wanted but still under a 19:00 pace so I was OK with that. The final mile went back into the property of the Brighton Senior Center as it was myself and a few other runners around me, somewhat jockeying for position. It wasn't until the last tenth of a mile before one person passed me but where I also passed a runner.

It turns out that as I was leaving the rec center, I stopped by the results pages and recognized the guy's name I had passed near the first mile and who had finished only a second behind me. It was Mike Ricci. How cool is it to run into a person from this same site?

I would have gotten there a bit earlier to do a proper warm up along with some sprints. Being loose would have help me a little bit.

Once I finished, I hung around the finish line for a few minutes watching the runners come in. After that I went and jogged around the neighborhood for a short while before returning to my car to get my windbreaker.


Lack of warm up and a speed and long hill workout two days before.


There was a breakfast burrito for the finishers as well as some bagel bites, orange and banana slices, and also some samples of pies and ice cream to mention a few. Spread out between the age group running awards was a raffle. It was one of the better ones because they had turkeys, Starbucks and other restaurant gift certificates. Very nice.

I ran this race last year and this year I took off 28 seconds from what I did last year. Scary but the 40-44 age group was faster than the 35-39 age group that I won last year in a slower time. Who says old guys can't run fast? Hopefully I can continue to improve each year for a while.