Going out on top

Not out of running, just the year. I had my last race of the year on the 18th. A local-ish 10k. I had two goals going into the event: 1. sub-40 2. win. I knew these were both lofty goals given it was my first 10k race, but with the year I've had I really didn't care how lofty they were.

The event is a multi-distance footrace. There was a marathon, half marathon, 10 mile, 10k, 5k and 1 mile race. All of them started at the same time. Still, the field was pretty small (pic below). I went sans watch. Since I had a time goal, I knew I would just keep looking at it. I decided it would be better to just run. Race conditions were almost perfect. Partly cloudy, sun, a little wind and mid 30's. If the wind were gone and it was 5 deg warmer, it would have been perfect.

And you know I had to rock the pink shorts!

I went out in 2nd (of all the runners, pic of me and the 1st runner). About a half a mile in, another runner and myself started to switch off between breaking the wind and drafting. We continued this until the turn around (out and back course). The last 5k killed me. With out the other runner to trade off with, I was in the wind the entire time. It helped that the course was mostly flat (one very small hill, more of a bump really). It was also nice to hear people saying "wow" and one guy who said "damn he's fast" as I went by the 5k runners/walkers.

Rounding the final corner, I knew I was in first (goal #2, check). My time was 41:03. Not quite what I was shooting for but in all it was a great race. I'm still super stoked that I actually won a race. Not my age group but out right won a race :) I couldn't think of a better way to end my racing year!