My first 10k - 2011 Conquer the Hill, Evendale OH

If you are a participant over at Runners World this is the same review:

Okay, so here goes:

I got to the event about 7:40-7:45, race started at 8, got checked in, got my bag with my number/shirt/coupons for Mcdonalds (weird), and ****s.

I found a place towards the back of the pack, and about 8am they had us go. About :45seconds into the race, I made it to the starting line LOL. :30 after that the gun went off.

I started out at a 2/1 run/walk pace, but found early on that I wasn't needing the full one minute so I began going at a 2:30/:30 pace up the first hill. It was by far the biggest...although a straight shot was still pretty steep for me.

Once we turned off the main road and got back into the neighborhoods, there were alot of people cheering and spraying with hoses...good thing, too, it was still pretty humid at that point. And thankfully they had water at every mile. The nighborhood was pretty hilly, more hills than I'm used to even running in my neighborhood. Also at that point it did start to rain, which was nice.

Coming out of it though I was listening for my time at around mile 2 going downhill into the pretty long straightaway. It was just over 24 minutes, which I was happy to hear, especially with all the hills. 12 minute miles are pretty much my average, I was just hoping to keep that pace for the next 4.2 miles.

As I was going down the straightaway there were walkers and people that were running back that have times that boggle my mind LOL. Towards the end of the straightaway there is a thrift store that was blocked off...apparently some woman really needed to get her thrift shopping on because she reved her engine at a cop while yelling to let her in. Last thing I heard was "If you do it again your getting out and sitting in MY car".

Going up another of the main road hills was pretty tough for me..then going back into the neighborhood off the main road was another section of hills..some where the gradual kind, others were the pretty steep.

Coming out of that, and downhill back into the straightaway, it started to pour which was actually nice except for the fact that my shirt was getting quite heavy, and my shorts kept trying to fall down.

I was always close by someone either trying to pass or being passed, but managed to usually be motivated enough to not let the people behind me pass, at least for long.

As I hit the 6 mile marker, I heard my time, and had just under 2:00 to hit my goal time of 75 minutes.

I started booking it as fast as I could without falling over to hit that finish line, trying my hardest to not let it hit that 75minute mark.

As I heard the person yell out the time of 15:xx to the people ahead of me I knew I didn't make it, so I made it my mission to NOT let it get past the 16 mark, and did so.

My "official" time was 75:48, but I KNOW that clock said 75:40. Plus I didn't hit the starting line until about :30 after everyone started...so I didn't start my clock until then. I didn't hit my goal of 75 minutes either way, but wasn't sure how things were calculated.

Looking at it, I came in dead last in my age group of 30-34, but not dead last out of the entire group.

All in all, I'm happy with the results, I was really nervous about the hills, but managed them just fine. Running at a 2:30/:30 pace kept me pain free in my back. So all in all, not bad for a fat guy (trying to be skinny ) running for only 2 months LOL..