Appalachian Power Festival Run

This was the first 10k I've done that wasn't the Lewisburg Chocolate Chase.  The Lewisburg course, described as "gently rolling" by those of us who live here, is considered quite hilly by everyone else.  The Festival Run I did this past weekend was run almost entirely on the Roanoke Greenway, which is very flat.  It's a paved biking/walking trail along the river.  The only small hills in this race were two short bridges within a mile of the start/finish line.  The race was an out-and-back.

I was not particularly impressed with race management.  There was no bag check, and since I was travelling alone, I ended having to run with my car key in my hand.  My shorts have a small key pocket, but my car key is much to big to fit.  I wasn't too pleased about that, but there are worse things that running with a giant car key in your fist I suppose.  I run with my house key in my hand all the time, but I prefer not to worry about such things in races.  Anyway, that wasn't so bad.  The more disagreeable part was that the race started 15 minutes late because they didn't have water set out on the course.  The race was supposed to start at 8, so I was ready on the starting line before then, and they waited until 8 to tell us that the water wasn't set out and that we would be starting 10 minutes late.  10 minutes later they said they still weren't ready.  I don't personally really understand the need for so much water out on the course, but I guess it's a good thing to have.  I kinda feel like people should be able to survive an hour without water...but that's just me.  Mostly, I just can't stand it when races start late.  I strongly dislike standing on the starting line for extended periods of time.  I want to just go run already!

Once the race finally started, it took about a mile for people to settle into their strides, and at that point, I did not pass anyone nor get passed by anyone for the rest of the race.  First place female was in sight ahead of me until she kicked stronger than me in the last mile, but she was not close enough for me to catch.  I could have surged and caught up to her earlier in the race, but I didn't feel like I would be able to keep up after wasting the energy on a surge.  So, I chose to run what felt like the best I could do.  I did finish under 40 minutes, which was my goal for the day, and gave me a nice PR from my previous 10k PR of 40:25.

I finished 2nd place female and 9th overall.

After the race I wandered around and took some pictures of the festival/car shoe while waiting for the awards ceremony.

Last week:

M: rest

T: 3.48 / 25:40 / 7:22

W: 5.23 / 41:02 / 7:50 w/Jim early in the AM

R: 3.9 / 28:10 / 7:13

F: rest

Sa: 10k / 39:47 / 6:24

Su: rest

total : 18.81

A light week, but it was all I had the energy for.  It was my last week of teaching for the year, but it was a full week, and my energy is gone.  I am definitely ready for summer break!  Just field day and odds and ends for this week, finishing with closing chapel on Friday.