St. Patrick's Day 10K

On Saturday Gina and I made trip up to Erie to run a local 10K. It was put on by the Erie Runner's Club and hosted at Presque Isle State Park. The race course primarily was an out and back along the thin neck of the peninsula with a short out and back blip at the finish. Warmer temperatures over the last week vanished before the weekend leaving us with rain/fog/mist and temperatures in the 40s. However, the warmer air stayed around long enough to melt the snow so at least we didn't have to fight the ice and slush as we did at the 5 mile race held at the same place on New Years.

There was some confusion at the start. People lined up were previous races start, which turned out to be about 200 feet up course from where the real start was. The race director marched everyone back the 200 feet through the parking lot to the real starting line. The back of the pack stopped at the starting line once they reached it and created a mass of runners lining up between cars. I ended up having to start a few rows back from the start and when the race started had to slip by several folks to get out front. By the time I broke free of the main pack, the lead and chase pack were already a couple of hundred feet ahead and making ground.

I set a solid pace and starting picking off runners. By the half way point, I had moved up to about 10^th place. The wind blew in our faces on the return leg. I turned my hat around (aerodynamic!) and tried to keep the same effort and focusing on picking off more runners. I kept sliding by more runners and moved into 4^th place with about ½ mile remaining. I finished strong, but I don't have a kick. At the end I felt like I still had gas in the tank and should of pushed it harder throughout the race. This time was about 17 seconds off of my PR, but with the weather I still think it was a good effort.

time: 38:09
pace: 6:09/mile
place: 4/257
age group (30-34): 1/11

Gina ran strong too and did get a PR (54:21). I was able to run the last ½ mile with her and enjoyed watching her pass some folks and keep her foot on the gas. No news or information on the GAP, hopefully I'll have something next week. Spring break is the week of March 22 - March 26, the plan is to write a working itinerary that week. I'll post whatever I write.

FULL RESULTS