Total Image 10K Report

Earlier this week when I saw that I was going to be in Manchester, NH for work, I looked to Mr Google for places to run. What do you know? There was going to be a 5K/10K race with the start/finish line no more than three blocks from my hotel. Since that was about as far as I was planning to run, I quickly signed up.

I walked to the start to pick up my bib, then ducked into Jillian's Billiards (the host pub) to stay warm and use the facilities. There were about 300 runners, 200 doing the 5K and 100 doing the 10K. We all started together with the 5K runners splitting off at about the 1 mile point. I stayed at the back of the pack, using the first three miles as a warm-up. The course was wonderful, just about a mile on roads, the rest of the race was on paved bicycle/running paths with some of it next to a river. Near the half-way point was a short steep hill that I walked up, the rest of the route was mostly flat and fast.

After about three miles (and coming down the backside of that hill) I picked up my speed and started picking off runners one by one. I ended up passing eleven runners and ran a significant negative split. The time for my first three miles was 34:17 and I ran the last 3.2 miles in 32:08.

After the race, Jillian's had a pretty good spread. Besides the standard water and bananas, there were veggies and dip, crackers and cheese, shrimp, and meatballs. So I stuck around for the awards and ate lunch. I knew there might be a chance of getting an age group award in a race this small. Lo and behold I won first prize in my age group! Ok, I was the only one in my age group, but hey, it still counts.

Final time 1:06:25