Washington Trail 10K

Today I loaded up the family and drove to Durham Connecticut for the Washington Trail Memorial Day 10K race (and parade). The parade kicked-off at 9:00 am and we watched it from my friends-in-laws lawn. The kids got doused with candy, and therefore enjoyed themselves.

After the parade, running friend Dave and myself headed over and registered. As race time approached the sun came out and the temperature creaped into the high 70s. The race started at 11:00 and headed out clockwise from the high school onto Main street up a hill - then flattened out for the first 2 miles. I was chugging along at 14:low-somethings at a 2 mile mark. Then the hills started and lasted pretty much for the next 2 miles. I hit the 4 mile mark at about 30:30 - so the middle 2 miles were run at a horribly slow pace (8:00+ min/mile). I must've been pretty beat by then, because I didn't finish until 46:54 - so the last 2 miles were just under 7:30s - giving me a 7:33 pace for the entire run. Certainly much worse than I was expecting. The course, despite the hills was very scenic - kinda rolled through some pretty Connecticut farmland - before plopping out mercifully at the school.

Tonight I'll celebrate with some tasty IPA and then think about regrouping for the twilight trail run. Not sure what my strategy will be for that. Then I need to start thinking about what I want to aim for in the fall: another 10K, 1/2 or take the plunge and try a marathon. hmm...