2008 Thanksgiving Day Pie Run

Hugh, Dan, and I ran the course as a warm up which had changed this year. It was almost all on the road since $2 million in liability insurance was required to run on the trail. The 10K had to run the course twice and the 5K would run it once. We got back and waited for the race to start. It ended up starting about 15 min late due to the people still signing up.

Hugh ran the 5K and Dan and I ran the 10K. Dan had a really fast and impressive start. I wondered if I could catch him, but eventually he slowed it down to a reasonable 10K pace. Dana and Paul, who also run about my pace in this race in past years, were both ahead of me. Eventually caught Paul and stayed with him for a few miles. The pace felt fast, but thought I could stay with him and then pulled ahead after a mile or so. I didn't feel like I was working too hard, but just tried to keep the pace steady fearing everything was surely going to fall apart at some point. I found it hard to believe at points I was running the pace I was running but the splits confirmed.

First loop clock said 19:18 so I figured I would start to slow at some point. I continued to feel strong and passed Dana in the second loop and then another guy before mile 4. I maintained same pace and position until the end finishing in 38:42, a 10K PR for me by 1:15. Every 10K PR, I have set has been in this race. I probably could have run harder, but was not sure whether I could keep it up. The pace I ran is often a good 5K pace for me so running a 10K at this pace was new for me. I finished strong and felt good. I guess a couple days rest, and being unmotivated is good for my running. I don't think that Dan felt sorry for me any longer since I ran well. He had a 10K PR as well.

Hugh placed first in the 50 - 59 age group and I placed first in the 40 - 49 age group. This was the first time I ever got a medal in this race. Hugh got his first last year. There is a lot of good competition at this race and the 10 year age groups makes it very difficult. It is a good course though to shoot for a 5 or 10K PR being so flat. Hopefully, this race has given me the motivation to try to shoot for 3,000 miles by the end of the year.

m1 - 6:07.....m4 - 6:09
m2 - 6:13.....m5 - 6:15
m3 - 6:12.....m6 - 6:09
0.27 - 1:36 (5:59 pace)