Today was popular for 10Ks, by reading the dailies.  Mine was in Rochester NY, at some park full of Lilacs and preceding a festival in their honor.  I left myself extra time for the drive so as to not be running late in a strange city.  (I'm familiar with Roc, it's just literally strange.)  However, it was an error to take the back country roads directly from my house instead of heading in towards Buffalo to get on the Thruway.  By the time I got through lots of hills and small-town speed traps, it was getting too close to the 9:00 gun time for comfort.  Then, I took a wrong exit once finally to the highway and lost another 5 minutes.

After finding parking, I hurried towards the throng of people milling around the start/finish area, with the 5Kers still straggling in from their 8:00 start.  Here's the exchange I had with a woman who was so very busy texting:

"Excuse me miss, where's registration?"

In a bothered tone, she snapped "You don't need to register if you have a number."  (I was not wearing a number.)

"....ok, but do you know where I would pick mine up?"

"There's a tent down there."

"ok."

There were about 3,678 tents "down there", since a whole festival of vendors was set up in the park.  After wasting more time looking for perhaps a larger tent, someone else actually provided useful information and pointed me towards the non-tent packet pickup building.  Seriously, just tell me to fuck off so you can text uninterrupted, or here's an idea, say "sorry, I don't know" if you don't know.

By the time I got my bib and tee shirt, it was 8:50. I found a place to hide the tee and wormed as far up as I could in the corral, which wasn't nearly far enough.  I motioned a long-haired guy down from the curb into the street in front of me, and got a smile, handshake, and a "good luck" for my trouble.  A kid behind me wanted a fist bump.  Ok, at least the runners in Rochester aren't assholes.

The gun went, and it was time to start dodging and weaving like Barry Sanders.  (Yes Rick and Dave, my favorite RB of all time was not a Bill.)  I wasn't quite deep enough to have to write off the race as a fun run and finally got out to some daylight and a large pack of guys in Genesee Valley Harriers singlets.   The mile one timer called out 5:31 - ok, I was expecting to be over 6 from the crowd.  Do work.

The course had more hills than any route available in downtown Buffalo, but none were especially steep.  Just enough to have to take them into account.

3 miles in 17 and change, perfect.  I was now mostly alone, with just a few runners in earshot, the smoking fast guys (and the top lady) long gone.  A good number of of spectators were out cheering, which was nice.  From here, the course went into quiet residential neighborhoods.  A mid-20's guy went past like a bat out of hell.  Another guy who looked to possibly be in my AG pulled alongside, and then took a 10-15 yard lead.  The race would come down to just this: I needed to beat that guy.  Around mile 4, a hill appeared and I could hear him sucking wind as we went up; this was my opportunity to surge past and never look back.  Now I was energized with the task of not seeing him again, and could shake off the lull of running solo.

Through 5 I felt ok, breathing was easy in the cool and dry morning sun.  At 6, I picked it up but didn't kick yet, knowing that .2 is deceptively far.  Finally the inflatable finish arch was visible and I kicked it in hard, glad that I had worn my PAC singlet to represent for Buffalo in a town where lots of runners were proudly wearing their club colors.  There were no footsteps and no one to snipe, so for a frozen moment the spectators were just cheering for me alone on a street lined with blooming Lilac bushes.

35:49 was my time, and sub 36 had been my goal.  After cooling down and changing, I went to check out results.  25th overall, 4th AG.  Doh!  The guy I had held off was 5th AG, so there's that.

I took the Thruway home, enjoying the steady 70mph instead of puttering through farmland.  Making use of a rest stop, I encountered dozens of seriously bad-ass looking bikers.  Among their club vests, I spotted one Hell's Angel and a group of Outlaws, so I didn't hang around, but wondered if they would have recognized the Boston jacket I had left at home.

Sort of a disappointing race in that I had hoped to at least earn my gas money back via AG, but hopefully I can take something useful away from the race, my first "real" 10K.  The limiting factor was the condition of my legs, not aerobic capacity.  So from that, I think I need to try to physically recover over the next week before the Buffalo Half.

So your race warmup was a race?  The title makes sense now. lol

Do you have much experience jumping right into 10k pace or thereabouts during training runs?  I suppose I did it quite a bit back in the days when I raced every run I took.  lol

Damn, 35:49 and you got beat by 24 people.  Fast (or large) field.  Scrambling to get to the starting line seems to be a recurring theme for you.    Nice race, Jay!

Okay, I'm confused. Is it the 10K or the report that is improper?   Better to take a wrong turn on the drive up than in the race. Looks like you had about 20 seconds to make up for 3rd and that can be pretty tough when you're running sub-36. Good effort and a quick first mile considering lack of any warm-up.

Fantastic race and report!  Wow, it must have been an extremely fast field for you not to place in your AG.  Nice job getting under 36:00!

Another easy read Jay. Thanks for putting it together! Wow, what a fast field. A sub 36 doesn't even make AG - WOW!

By the time I got my bib and tee shirt, it was 8:50. I found a place to hide the tee and wormed as far up as I could in the corral, which wasn't nearly far enough.  I motioned a long-haired guy down from the curb into the street in front of me, and got a smile, handshake, and a "good luck" for my trouble.  A kid behind me wanted a fist bump.  Ok, at least the runners in Rochester aren't assholes.

Ok Jay, you gotta fess up now.  Just exactly does one "worm" up.  Lay on the ground and slither?  Roll around in the grass?  Kinda a strange "warm" up but I guess it worked.  "Worm"ing your way in the corals is just plain wrong.  If your late you stay in the rear, simple 3rd grade manners.  Slithering is acceptable, so long as you are a snake.

Seriously, nice running and I hope you had fun while expending mucho energy that morning.  Love your reports.

Congratulations on hitting your goal. I'm sure there will be plenty of AG awards for you for this distance in the future. The scramble to the start would have messed with my head, but you handled it very well. Great job!