Tom's Blog

Friday, I was at work, and the longer the day went, the more excited I got about this race. I'm not really sure why, maybe it's because for some reason I like this distance. I think it's because you are starting to get more into the endurace aspect compared to a 5K. I'm not sure, I just know I do. For what ever reason, I was more excited about this race than any race I have ran yet.

Saturday morning, I had my alarm set for 5:15 am. I didn't need it though. I awoke at 5:00 and was wide awake and ready to go. I got up and began my pre-race morning routine. I like to stay up and moving to get my stomach ready, and get that first bathroom break out of the way before I head out the door; otherwise it could be trouble.

Joe came by the house about 6:40 and we were headed downtown. I parked my car a few blocks from the starting line, and he picked me up and we headed down to Slugger field area to meet up with everyone. When we arrived, Christian and his sister-in-law, and Lee where already there and waiting. Shortly after Kriston and Joey showed up. About 7:15, we started our warmup run by running up to the Starting line. Somewhere along the way, we got seperated from Kriston, Joey, Christian, and Christian's sister-in-law. Sorry about that guy's.

Once we got to the starting line, Lee and Joe headed to the restrooms since Lee hadn't been since he left Evansville, and the coffee he had drank made it a necessity. Shortly after Kriston decided she needed to go as well. Well aparantly there weren't enough. Lee barely made it back in time and Kriston finally just gave up.

At 8:00 we got the start. Me and Joe ran together through the first mile at an 8:05 pace. After that, I dropped back just a bit. I stayed close enough to still see Joe through the 3 mile mark. I was averaging an 8:20 pace through most all of the race. I didn't have too much trouble passing, but it didn't seem quite as easy as the Anthem 5K for some reason.

There were lots of people around the course cheering us on which great, and very much appreciated. One I particularly remember was at some one's house. They were very vocal, and exhuberant, but they had some fireworks that they were setting off, and that smoke was almost intollerable at that point. I was breathing pretty good, and my lungs didn't care for that smoke at all.

My only other complaint, was the last home stretch. It was a slight uphill all the way to the finish, and they had several monitoring lines accross the road so they could call out names of people coming to the finish. These caused me and others that I talked to to have a strange stride coming to the finish rather than being able to just kick to the end.

All in all I would say this was a very good race. I really enjoyed it, and really enjoyed hanging out with some great friends. I hope everyone else enjoyed it as much as I did, and for the most part, I beleive all did.