In the end, a pretty decent day

It's tough to try and have a race report for a race I didn't "race." Instead, the easiest thing I can say is that I ran a comfortable 51:43 in the Ukrop's Monument Avenue 10k. Things would have been a lot different if I had been able to run in the past few weeks; if it wasn't raining; if I would've been able to wear my new shoes; if I would've remembered my watch; and if I hadn't had several beers last night at the Lynchburg College Alumni Association "happy hour."

In the end, I ran this harder than I thought I would, partly because I felt I had to after raising $700 for the VCU Massey Cancer Center. I couldn't just take it easy the whole time knowing that I had done my part. To some, it might not seem like a big deal, but to me it was. In the end, I wish I would've done more in the last few weeks. It's crazy how much endurance I felt like I lost, but I was happy to be consistent the whole time - I had a 25:47 5k split. In the end, the rain wasn't nearly as bad as forecasted, but the humidity was awful. In the end, remembering my watch might've made a difference too. Imagine starting more than 14 minutes after the clock began and trying to do the subtraction every mile on how fast I was going. After a couple of miles, I stopped worrying about it and enjoyed a slower-than-usual race pace, but slightly faster-than-usual training pace. In the end, my new shoes would've been nice, but I wasn't going to ruin them in the rain. And in the end, I could've used one less Yuengling last night, but it was mighty tasty. And besides, I had already planned to not "race" hard.

My foot did OK ... it's feeling very indifferent at the moment. I think I'm ready for a solid week of bike riding and not worrying about hitting the pavement. It might not have been the smartest thing to run on it, but it really doesn't feel any different five hours later. It was awesome to be a part of this huge, huge race. It's the first race I've done that had wave starts, and it was so much better than being in corrals. It was nice to be among a steady group of people running around the same pace as me.

The Richmond Sports Backers do an excellent job of putting together events, and the beginning of this one was suburb. There was ample water on the course, and the finishing area made it very easy to find my wife afterward.

Now, it's time to make the switch to Magic Hat the rest of the day. :-)