40th Annual Jones Group Realtors 10 Miler

Race day.  Second race of the year, but while I'm training for Boston I want to be conservative with my races.  Today was a 10 mile race, and I set my goal pace to 9:30-9:45.  This course/race has been a standard for as long as I can remember, but this year they made a slight change to the start & finish lines.  With these changes, they also adjusted the first and last mile of the course.  As with any race changes, there are bound to be a few glitches, and the main one I saw was a bottleneck at about 1/2 mile, as we took a turn onto a street that was impeded by a large puddle on the left, and ice that stretched across the road.  Had they not changed the course, we wouldn't have turned at this road.

On the up side, I did like that new finish location.  In the past you would finish about 1/2 mile away from the start (and the parking area).  Then you would have to walk back to your car across sidewalks and fields that were sometimes water & mud covered.  Now the finish was about 10 yards away from the parking lot.  Easy access to the cars!!

As the race started, I knew that I would go out too fast, so I planned on it.  Run what felt comfortable until the two mile mark, and then THE HILL begins.  THE HILL is about a mile long, and climbs about 250 feet.  Once you hit the top of the hill you have a quarter mile, and you enter Shutesbury, MA.  For some reason, Shutesbury has chosen not to pave this road, and the next mile and a half is on dirt roads (some spots covered in ice).  This year, the conditions were just about perfect... not too much ice, and the road was just soft enough to give you a little cushioning.  It actually felt nice running in the "mud".  As you pass the six mile mark, you're pretty much home free, with just a couple of small hills left on the course.

As well as watching my pace, I was also watching my heart rate.  Everything went as planned, and when I finished, I had a time of 1:35:30 (9:33/mile).  Exactly what I had wanted.

Once I finished, I proceeded to do a two mile cool down.  Normally I'd be done with the 10, but my training plan called for 12 miles today.


Today's total  -  12.01 miles  /  152.44 for the year.