Local turkey trot today. Course seemed pretty reasonable, only 189 feet of elevation gain over the 10k. The only downside was the weather, temps were great -around 39-41, but the wind was 20mph sustained with gusts higher out of the west and north. I knew this would be challenging as the course is exposed for large portions of it. My goal was to try to get under 37 min (5300 feet so this would have been a good pace for this altitude). I was a little concerned that wasn't possible when I saw the conditions, but I stayed positive. 2 mile warmup then the race. Not only was it because the wind shifted from being at my back to in my face, but the 2nd half of the race merged the 10k runners with the masses of 5k runners and the trail was so narrow, that the 10k runners overtaking had to go off-roading into the weeds to pass, so that was very disconcerting and chaotic. I managed though and was weaving in and out/battling 5k people the rest of the way in, which was the only real damper to this event minus the wind, which actually didn't feel as bad the 2nd half of the race. Spits were all over the map. Splits:
1- 5:52
2- 6:17
3 - 5:59 (18:08 through 3 miles)
4- 5:48
5- 6:20
6 - 6:03 (18:11 through last 3)
change - :55
total 37:14, roughly 6:00 pace
Overall, I was happy with the effort, this was 11 seconds faster than my BolderBoulder time and the conditions were much worse today. Right near my goal, and that is always nice. 3 mile cooldown, now to decide whether to go one more 10k or to call the season finished, take a break, and start on my Boston training cycle.
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