PA DUI Association 10K Results

My commute for this race was a relative short one, as Harrisburg is only a thirty minute drive.   This was enough time to consume some liquids, eat an energy bar and rid myself of some early  morning cob webs. Saturday morning was very humid with the temperatures in the 70's.  In spite of resting for two days prior to this race, I did not feel particularly energetic as I reached the PA DUI Association building on Front Street, adjacent to the Susquehanna river.

Everything was well organized.  I picked up my race bib, #229.  I often try to attribute some significance to my bib no, but I was drawing a blank on the 229.  I once had planned to run a 4:48 minute pace per kilometer for a race and then drew the bib number 448.   I collect my race bibs so I was glad to see the organizers had customized race bibs.  Many times race organizers buy the generic Runner's World bibs in an effort to limit expenses.  I believe if you had unique and creative bibs made for a race you would find a small contingency of people entering the race in an effort to collect the race bib.

There was a light crowd for this race, I believe about 100 runners.  Hershey's Balloon Chaser 5K was also being run on Saturday.  This race was run entirely on a trail adjacent to the Susquehanna river.  Since the path was only about eight feet wide, the starting line was very congested.

The starter began the race with vocal Runners Set' and then 'Go' commands. I cringe when a real starter's pistol is used to begin a race because the shot results in both scaring myself and being temporarily deafened. I started near the front of the pack. I purposely held back in the first quarter mile because I knew I had a habit of starting races too quickly. I did not want to exhaust myself too early within a 6.2 mile (10K) race. Much to my surprise I knew there were not many runners ahead of myself throughout the race. I had mentally prepared to finish about 60th.I knew there were not 59 runners ahead of me for a majority of the race.I was motivated to not falter at the end and lose my potential medalist caliber position.

As fate would have it, the sun emerged and the humidity climbed throughout the race. I felt very good for the first four miles and hung on for the last two miles. I unofficially finished in 46:07. I was very proud of my effort until someone mentioned the course was short by over a quarter of a mile.  I glanced at my GPS watch and it read 5.92 miles. Convert this time to 6.2 miles and my 10K time was 48:18. I had wanted to finish in 47:40, but I will attribute the deferential to the heat and humidity.

I finished in 19th place, once again just a position or two shy of garnering a medal for my age group.

After the race I met a gentleman named Dave McSherry. He will be also be running in Maine at the Beach to Beacon 10K race in August.

Here are my beginning of the summer benchmarks or personal records;
1 mile - 5:57, 5K - 21:37, and 10K - 48:18.

My next race is the Millers Mutual Mile in Harrisburg on Wednesday July 21st.  It will be amazing if I can finish the mile in 5:45.  I am not going to become laser focused on a mile time.  Wherever my training takes me by then is where I'll be.  I  have to remember to keep the training fun to prevent this regimen from becoming laborious.


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