Monster Dash 10 Mile - Run10 Mile

The crowding at the start was pretty bad. The roads are narrow with few options to get around. And of course since the race was "ipod friendly" people were just running wherever, moving in front of you when trying to pass, etc. Really annoying! The hills were a big challenge for me. On this day, on a flat course, I'm quite sure I could have done 9:20s at least. Every time I looked down I was there or down in the 9 range. However, the hills... I walked through the water stop at the turn to have my shot bloks and also walked up a few hills. Stayed pretty positive overall and this is definitely my kind of weather. I could have used sleeves on my shirt. Wearing my jacket was too warm, but my shortsleeved shirt felt great except for cold forearm skin. Had to run into the wind the last few miles - awesome. As soon as I was about 1 mile from the finish I ran as fast as I possibly could, I was so glad to be done!

As usual I only did the bare minimum of distance and training. If I could up my consistency more I am sure I would do well at this distance. But I'm really glad I was able to get near my goal pace and no real complaints. Although, I do regret not remembering the banana. Who knows how much that might have helped! :)

Hot and cold on this race. Very good try on the part of the race organization. Good food, nice maps and pre-race info, great water stops. However, some grievances: 1. Packet pickup, pain to get to the convention center (on a Friday..) and really unnecessary since they didn't have a real expo, 2. Location: difficult parking and the first 1.5 miles were VERY slow due to crowd and limited space. 3. Ditch the iPod friendly thing, I just don't see the benefit.