Not sure what I was getting myself into with this one. I knew this area of the city was rolling, but had no idea it would be long hills and not short ones. OOPS! Plus I had ridden yesterday with a little bit more exuberance than I wanted and I raced a 5k hard just this past Monday, so still had some residual soreness from that. Oh well ...... there was money waved in my face by the chance of placing in my AG (I knew there was no way in hell I'd come close in the overall), so get out there and suffer!

Start off on some narrow neighborhood streets and slight downhill. Then about 1/2 mile in we get a REAL downhill .... almost have to reign yourself in from barrelling down the hill. That will wake the quads up fast! Bottom of the hill we turn left and the fun begins. Loooonnnnnggg gradual uphill ..... we're talking 1-1/2 miles or more of this long gradual incline.

Mile 1 ticks off at 5:43 which I knew was quick, but the downhill helped that and it was slower than the 5:31 I ran in the 5k earlier in the week. Knowing that a 10k needs to be run a half a gear lower than a 5k I tried to keep in under control. The main contendors were long gone soon after and there was a small group that I was staying in sight, but not keeping up with.

About mile 1.5 or so Remus Medley caught me and pulled a few feet ahead. We ran together way back in High School and hea was always fast then. He kept on running after school and is now a 2:50-ish marathoner, but still fast in the shorter distances. He is also my age, so I knew that there went a spot in the AG placings. DOH! I hung with him as we steadily climbed. Mile two was 6:16, so I was still on 6 minute pace overall, but I knew that wasn't going to stay with the course elevations.

I tried to bungee chord my mind to Remus and hang with him. I was surprised I did through the 3 mile mark. The halfway 5k split was about 19:12 or so. Not great, but not bad. About this time Remus picked it up just enough that I couldn't hang anymore. So I just pushed what I could and kept going. The HR amazingly stayed right around 190 the whole time. There was only one person relatively close behind me (Remus' teenage son) and not another person for a bit behind him.

His son caught me about the 4 mile mark and I told him to go get his Dad. 4 to 5 was uneventful as I tried to stay in contact with him. Then we crossed over where we came down the bog hill and took an adjacent road ..... back up towards the finish. Mile 5 to 6 was all uphill and relatively sloped grade. Probably in the 5% - 7% range. Ummmmm, ouch???? After coming down the other hill in the beginning I knew we would have to climb out, so I was dreading this. My goal was just to hang on and not get passed by anyone else. The goal of breaking 39 was out the door after the 3rd mile, and the hope to break 40 was starting to look slim at this point.

That last mile was a 7:13 .... could have been worse I guess. Turned the corner onto the finishing road and saw that I could still break 40, so I pushed it a little. Hit the timing mat at 39:48, so at least I beat that 40 mark. Thank God that was over ... ;-P

Ummmm, train maybe?? I haven't raced but one other 10k in my life, and that was the Bay Bridge run last year where I set the other PR. And the last month has been really slack with running mileage and speed. Most of the runs have been slower "recovery" paced ones.

Talked to some of the co-workers that were still around. The 5k went off a half hour before the 10k, so they had been done for awhile. Ate some grub and drank water (they had a really good spread and great volunteers).


Training, racing the week before, and riding the day before. But this wasn't an "A" race, so it was just to get out there and see what sort of number I could put up.


Great race on a really challenging course. Amazingly I ended up 21st overall and got 2nd in my AG behind Remus. So I walked with $50 cash!! Not a bad day considering it was definitely a sub-par performance in my eyes. I know I've got a 38-ish run in me on a flatter course.