Kingston Classic Completed!
About an hour ago, I finished my first race, the Kingston Classic 10k run. My pace was an average of 9:03 per mile, making my finish 56:09. Huzzah! Next race in the Grand Prix is in June! Time to work towards a better time! Also, anyone interested in joining me for that, I'd love to train with anyone who wants to.
So the race itself was pretty fantastic. At least 400-500 of us ran from Kingston Plaza out into Hurley and back. I started with the rear of the pack, although I followed the cute chick in the green shirt more to the middle of the group. I had been planning just to finish at any pace I could, and expected to be towards the end. After looking at previous year's rankings, and judging from my running logs, I figured I'd finish more around 75 minutes in, so a 56 minute run was fantastic! It was a good feeling to see people regularly finishing still 10 minutes after I was done.
The crowds and runners were amazing, and when we saw the runners from Ethiopia passing us around mile 2 (on their way back), everyone started clapping and cheering them on. I was amazed at how many random people were on the side of the road just rooting us on. Of course the best moment was the little kid at mile 5 who was holding out his hand, giving all the runners high-5's!
I had a brief chance to talk to some of the runners both during and before the race began, which was cool, but I mostly plugged in my *red* iPod shuffle and plugged away. All in all, a good time, and something I look forward to doing again in June, August and October, if not more!
So the race itself was pretty fantastic. At least 400-500 of us ran from Kingston Plaza out into Hurley and back. I started with the rear of the pack, although I followed the cute chick in the green shirt more to the middle of the group. I had been planning just to finish at any pace I could, and expected to be towards the end. After looking at previous year's rankings, and judging from my running logs, I figured I'd finish more around 75 minutes in, so a 56 minute run was fantastic! It was a good feeling to see people regularly finishing still 10 minutes after I was done.
The crowds and runners were amazing, and when we saw the runners from Ethiopia passing us around mile 2 (on their way back), everyone started clapping and cheering them on. I was amazed at how many random people were on the side of the road just rooting us on. Of course the best moment was the little kid at mile 5 who was holding out his hand, giving all the runners high-5's!
I had a brief chance to talk to some of the runners both during and before the race began, which was cool, but I mostly plugged in my *red* iPod shuffle and plugged away. All in all, a good time, and something I look forward to doing again in June, August and October, if not more!