Race morning was cool and drizzly but totally pleasant for a run. The race started by a marina and ran along the oceanside, into a park, across a long iron bridge over a river, and then back again. It was a nice, moderately challenging, scenic course. I started out feeling surprisingly good so I was able to keep up a pretty good pace. I chatted with other runners, including Paul's friend Hazel, whom I had met a few times before. At the turnaround, I figured I could bump things up a bit and maybe come out with a decent finishing time. As it happens, I pulled off a personal best with a time of 1:01. (The distance on my Garmin matched up perfectly with the mileage signs along the course and at the end it read 10.2K. If the course was a tiny bit long, that's too bad, but you have to take what you get with races. I'm sure a lot of them aren't perfectly accurate.)
When I went to check my posted time, I saw that I had finished third (out of 26) in my age group, to boot! So I even got to be part of the awards ceremony!
I was pretty pumped about that race and my finish. Paul was second in his age group and Dan got a half marathon PB so it was a great day all around!
