All the 2k runners and 8k runners started together, so it was me and my husband doing the 8k, and my 10 year old daughter doing the 2k. Everyone ran the same course for the first mile, and then the 2k runners split off to the finish. So, the first mile was a little slow (even for me) since it was very crowded (we were actually walking at about 13:30 pace at first until things got moving) and I was trying to make sure my daughter was going to get to the finish line (and back to her older sister) without any problem.

Then, that stupid second mile is almost all uphill. According to the Garmin, the long uphill is 0.85 mile. Ick. But, we made it to the top and kept on our way. There were some rolling hills the rest of the way, and we started passing a lot of people who were walking. We just took the slow-but-steady approach and it worked pretty well.

If I wasn't running with my daughter, I might have been more agressive at the start, but it's such a low key event that it didn't matter a whole lot.

We walked around a bit and I stretched a little while waiting in the water line. Unfortunately they still have the same set up for water as last year, and it's just soooo sloooow. I rolled the IT band for a bit when I got home, but that was later on, of course.


Still a lack of experience at anything in the 5-6 mile range, but it's getting better.


This was a good way to start the day. I bettered my time from last year by about 40 seconds, so that is good. I was surprised by that, actually, because my knees have been so bad lately. There are no official results or age groups ranks for this race, and it's a very family-friendly event. We'll definitely do it again, and my goal for next time will be to get under 50 minutes.