2010 Cheese & Sauerkraut 10 Miler

We arrived early at 7:30 and I ran the 5 mile loop with Andy S. at a 7:15 pace. I didn't realize how fast we were running until we finished but was just a little worried that maybe that was too aggressive for a warm up.  Temp was in the low 40s and dropping.  I ran the first loop with Dan E. and Erik S. right behind us.  Dan really helped me keep a good pace.  Andy S. & Kevin S. were in our sights for the loop.  After the first loop I sped up a bit and caught up to Andy at little over 6 miles.  Kevin had pulled ahead quite a bit. We passed Kevin at the turn around since he was having a cramp which I felt bad that was the reason we passed him.

We didn't say much since we were working pretty hard.  Andy and I stayed together until the very end and tied for first at 1:30:50. I had predicted 1:07 so I was off 3:10 and the 33rd worst predictor.  I ran the first loop in 32:30 so ran the second in 31:20.  Very unusual for me to run that kind of negative split.  I took a full minute off my 10 mile PR from 2008 when I ran this race.  I really didn't expect to PR today.  We weren't allowed to wear watches but kept my GPS in my pocket to get the splits. 

Great turnout (50 runners) and lots of yummy stuff to eat after the race.  We had cinnamon rolls, chocolate sauerkraut cake, German Chocolate cookies with cream cheese in them that Hugh made.  The closest person was 13 seconds off and the furthest was Kevin at 16 min since he had a cramp so he got the Kraut.  The wind picked up and turned colder as we were waiting for results, but we had good conditions during the race.  The temp dropped 20 degrees during today and it is expected to get down to 15 tonight.

This race was featured on the calendar of the December 2010 Runner's World on page 108.  It is kind of funny they said it had 50 runners (an estimate) since that is exactly the number we had this year.  We get to run past a 350 year old burr oak (photo here) tree.  There is a picture in RW with the tree too.  It is the tree on the left.

Results

Photos

Andy & Hugh