Charlottesville 10 miler - 2010

Day 458 - April 3, 2010

Kick butt! Today's 10 miler went way better than expected. The forecast was for heat, but it never got that warm during the race. My goal was to break 65 minutes if all went well. At mile 1, I was a little nervous that I had gone out too fast, but at that point, there's nothing you can do about it. I decided to just go with it and if I hit the wall, I would deal with it. Mile 1 was 6:13 and I followed it up with a 6:17 for mile 2, 6:11 for mile 3, and 6:02 on the mostly down hill 4th mile. The 5th mile is where things start to get interesting as you run back uphill through the downtown mall. The crowds on the mall were great and I was feeding off the energy. I finished mile 5 in 6:09, probably the fastest I've ever run that mile. Miles 6 and 7 get pretty hilly and I was really pleased to run 6:25, and 6:30. I generally don't like the 8th mile. It is a long straight stretch up Main St with very few people. Mentally I find that really tough. But, this year was not too bad and I maintained a 6:33 pace. From 8 to 9, you run up hill through the corner and then turn uphill on McCormack through UVA. This stretch always slows me down and I've never done that mile in under 7 minutes before. Today, I crushed it in 6:38. With 1 to go, I picked it up and pushed as hard as I could for the last mile. I was rewarded with a final mile split of 6:12, my third fastest mile of the race. Official chip time - 63:14 a personal best by 56 seconds and 4 minutes faster than last year! I finished 54/2700+ and 8th in my age group (yes, it is a tough age group). Thanks to all the people and volunteers who made this such a great race.