Race for the Cure 10K Race Recap

Saturday I woke up to a rainy and dreary morning.  It was mentally tough to get up and moving but I had a race to run!  I signed up for the Race for the Cure 10K race with a team at work.  Because I joined a team, I received my bib and timing chip at work a few days before the race.  Since I had my chip, I had no choice but to run the race in order to return my chip!

I headed to the Pinnacle Promenade for the race and parked near the middle of the mall area.  With the chilly temps, I wanted to be close to the car in order to grab a jacket if I needed it after the race.  I made a trip to the indoor restrooms and then walked towards the start line area.  There weren't that many people out and about...I'm guessing all the smart people stayed in their cars until the last possible moment!  About 5 minutes before the start time, the radio dj's encouraged runners to move into the start corral.  I was surprised to see how many people appeared then!

Waiting in the start corral I ran into fellow Tough Chik Erin and we chatted for a few minutes.  We hadn't seen each other since the F5 Triathlon Club team meeting about 6 weeks ago.  The race started on time but included a small flub when the honorary chair starting the race didn't work the starting gun right.  The crowd moved forward and headed up the first of many hills.

The race was laid out as two big squares.  There were several water stops in the first 5K and then just one water stop along the 2nd half of the race.  There seemed to be lots of uphills and very few downhills during the course.  I did my best to avoid checking my watch for pace to prevent any mental freakouts.  There were always people nearby which kept the energy up throughout the entire race.  I stayed near the same group of people the entire race and used them as my pace rabbits.  The 5K race started 30 minutes after the 10K start so when we hit mile 5 the course merged back and the course became crowded with both 5K and 10K runners.  I lost sight of a couple of my pace buddies but think I still managed to stay on the pace.  I was pretty happy to hit that final downhill stretch into the finish.  There was a steep downhill and then a turn into the mall and as soon as I made that turn it got tough to hold the pace.  The downhill really helped increase my turnover and switching to the flats made me realize how much assistance gravity had given me just a few steps before!

I was happy with my finish time of 1:02:41. The course was hilly and I am still rebuilding my fitness after my foot injury earlier this year.  One thing that was very strange with this race this year was that the race timing/registration aged everyone up.  They used triathlon age systems which mean I was put into a different age group.  I thought that I had made a mistake in my registration until I learned that others had the same problem.

After the race, I met up with several friends that had done the 5K race.  We hit up the vendor booths and all took home a bag full of samples and goodies.  Our favorite find was the TCBY girls handing out soft serve and gift cards for $3 off our next visit.  Even though the temps were chilly we all enjoyed the frozen yogurt.  One vendor booth was very concerned with how people visited their tent.  They instilled a line system with volunteers blocking entry into the tent.  It was pretty intense compared to the other tents but worth it for the great samples that they had.  I'm stocked up on makeup remover wipes, travel band-aid packages, and mini lotions for my gym bag!

I am counting this race as my 10K race event for the Running Bloggers Virtual Race series.  Because of the rain, I didn't take any photos before/during the race.  I've got a few more events to complete in the race series including a 5K, 21K bike, and a swim event.