Fall Classic 10k

I'm currently in Utah with Jamie, and I'm taking a chance to update this post while watching the Redskins try to paralyze Peyton Manning. Before my flight yesterday I took part in the Patuxent River Fall Classic 10k. This was the first 10k I've run in several months, so my only goal was break the 50 minute mark.

It was the perfect conditions, too: sunny, about 50 degrees, and not a whole lot of competition. As always, there were a ton of guys in the 30-39 age group, but I didn't see any younger guys. I started to think that I might have a chance at first- you might be thinking "Do you really want to win by default?" Well, yes. Yes I do. Turns out there was one 24 year old guy who looked to be in pretty good shape. I talked to him beforehand (his name was Richard), and he was like "Oh, I haven't run a race in 5 years. I didn't even know about this until yesterday." So I was thinking that I still had a chance. That was until the starting whistle when he took off like a freaking rocket.

So my trophy says "2nd Place Male 20-29 Yrs" and "2006 Patuxent River 10K Fall Classic." But that's not really important, because I finished in 45:20, which shattered my goal by a good margin. That breaks down to about 7:30 min/mi, which is pretty good for me. Richard ended up getting fourth overall, and first in our group. That made me #2 out of 2, but I took a little pride in knowing that I would have won the 50-59 or the over 60 age group.

The race was a nice little wind down for my taper week, next Sunday being the marathon. I'm sure I'll have much more to say about that later.