route 66 10k

I'll post my last week of training for this 10k in the next few days, but first race recap!

Starting off, when I left my place around 6:30, it was already 75 and 87% humidity. This was definitely one of those instances where I wish we had an earlier start time.

The race itself was small but pretty fun and the course was pretty flat overall. However, those slight uphill ticks seemed much worse if you weren't running in the shade. 

The race first started with running through the neighborhoods, then eventually around mile 3 or 4 (can't remember) we started running on the trails (paved) that are plentiful in the area.  It was shaded, and very green! There were enough aid stations for the heat, and my highlights were getting hit with a water gun (I asked for it), taking Gatorade from Captain America, and the cold washcloths at Mile 5.  I stopped at every aid station because I definitely knew I wasn't acclimated to the Midwest humidity quite yet.

  My goal was to finish under 50 minutes..

So.. right after mile 5, we headed under a bridge, then the path split.  There was no volunteer here at this point, so about six of us headed in the wrong direction then someone told us to go the other way. So..that turnaround was pretty costly. One guy told me I could catch back up so I tried my hardest.. but finished 34 seconds over my goal time.  Regardless, still a 6 minute PR from the 10k last month, and a 7 minute PR from my last and only 10k on the road (I forgot about this one) from last year.

The Garmin told me a different story..

Afterwards, I met up with some friends and we hung out around Edwardsville until our brunch place opened.  I enjoyed a free beer from a local brewery in the meantime.  It was fantastic!

Cleveland-Heath in Edwardsville is delicious!

Overall - fun race, but man, it will still take me a bit to get used to this heat and humidity.  Apparently, it only gets worse from here. More info on my next running adventures in my last week of 10k training recap!