St. Patrick's Day 10K Race Report

This week, I made a last minute call to run a nearby 10K this morning. 

10Ks are a rare bread in my woods, so I like to run 'em when I can.  Plus, the weather's been so cool lately, and the race was cheap ($25), so why not?

The morning was cool by my standards (55 degrees), so I was a bit frozen at the start, and it took me the first mile to warm up, but after that, the race was glorious!  It was a flat, fast, easy course, and with such lovely running temps, the run was nothing but a peach!

My first mile was a bit slower than the rest (9:25), but by the end, I was burning the course down (8:20 pace), and I finished with a new 10K PR:

Have you ever seen a PERFECT race like that?  I mean in terms of distance?  Do you see that I ran EXACTLY 6.2 miles?!  I don't think, in the 8 years I've been running and racing, that I've EVER done that before!

I was happy with the new PR (by more than 3 minutes, no less!), but afterward, as I re-hashed the race in my mind, I knew that I could've given it a stronger effort: it was a perfect race (cool weather, flat course, small participant field), and I think a 54-something 10K was achievable; I just didn't push hard enough in the first 3 miles.

Oh well, I get another chance at the 10K in a month when I run Gumbo Limbo (although, that promises to be about 30 degrees warmer and a heckuva lot more humid; plus, there's hills).

Lastly, get this: A Finisher's Medal!

For a 10K!  Medal-madness, I tell ya.

At least it was reasonably sized...in fact, it's a darn zippy little race token...other big races can take note.  Something like this does just fine.