Boxing Day 10 Miler

No business wisdom here so skip this if thats what you want.

The past few days have been family time as expected this time of year.

Today I ran the Boxing Day 10 Miler. Weather was close to perfect. It was 3 degrees C (about 38 F) to start and warmed a couple of degrees through the race. There were 900+ runners. I remember running it a number of years ago with only 200 other runners. This made for a crowded start and a crowded race.

To start about .5 K in (Canadian runners have problems with distance - we run in Km and miles depending on what suits us) there is a short but steep hill. No problem. But after that, the next 2 miles are slow downhill. Reminded me a bit of Boston. The problem with that is I know I will have to come back up hill. The first mile I ran too fast at 7:35 so I eased off.

After a few miles, we came to the marina. Beautiful views. Some headwind though.

Then I just ran. After mile 6, there is a huge long, steep hill up the escarpment (another word for big moutain). I was not trying to do a pace, just trying to get up it.

At about mile 7 we hit the trails. A bit wet but not too slippery. A bit too crowded to pass and at that point, I still had energy to do so. By the time we hit the roads again, I was close to spent. I did not even try to pick up the pace at mile 8 and 9. Usually I try to pick up the pace a bit when I pass the mile markers.

Overall, I finished at an 8:31 pace at 1:25:08. Elizabeth did 1:16:03 winning the top female in her age category.

Not a bad way to work off indulgences of the season.