Intro & background: After last years marathon maniac quest, I decided this year to focus on shorter distance races and only run a couple of marathons. In February, I ran a 5K race and a 5 mile race (new PR at that distance). In March, there is basically a race every weekend and I planned on doing at least 3 or 4 of these races depending upon the weather and WAF. The first was this weekend. The Deer Creek Classic is a major fundraiser for the PTO of the Deer Creek school system. Deer Creek is a bedroom community on the far north edge of Oklahoma City with no industrial base, so all school funding is through local residential property taxes ie. the basics are all that is covered. The PTO has numerous fundraisers throughout the year to provide for the extras (computers in classrooms, equipment for atheletic/PE classes, etc.). Last year they raised $40,000 dollars for their organization with this event. Weather, course, and FR: Temperature at the start was 45 degrees with a 10-15mph South breeze. This course was fairly flat with just a couple of hills, running through one neighborhood and then following section line roads the rest of the way. Racing attire; Navy Adidas buddy shorts, gray 2008 WDW Marathon souveneir short-sleeved tech shirt, Thorlos socks, New Balance 826 shoes, Dallas White Rock Marathon hat, and a Garmin 305. Pre-race: I met Opie (from KR forum) about 45 minutes before the start and we did a nice 2 mile warm-up jog. I also, visited with one of DW's collegues (Kyle) and he told me that he hoped to break 50 minutes too. He said he would try to keep me in sight as he knew that this was my goal also. The race has an interesting start with the 5K runners starting in the opposite direction of the 10K runners. I thought this would be confusing, but it actually worked out nicely and made for an uncrowded start. I wished Opie a good race and found my place at the start that I thought was appropriate. The race: The start was down a slight hill with the wind at our backs. I had a hard time finding my pace and was too fast out the start. At the 1K mark. we turned into a residential addition. Along here I had settled into a nice pace with a small group of runners. I stayed with this group for the next 5-6K until we turned south into the wind (which had picked up to 15-20mph). They fell back and I set my sights on a couple of runners a few hundred yards ahead to catch up to. The race went through a road construction zone around 7K mark and the road turned to dirt and gravel. I had no problems with it, but the two runners I had been following moved over onto the grass and I passed them. When they came back onto the road they fell in behind me (drafting, I guess). At the 8K mark, I slowed for the water station and Kyle came up beside me. From this point on we stayed together to the end passing 3 or 4 more runners. At the finish, Kyle fell back a bit and I finished slightly ahead of him. Splits............split-time __________________________________________________ _ 1K................4:42 2K................4:54 3K................4:50 4K................4:54 5K................5:01 (a bit of a hill here, plus slowed for water) 6K................4:44 (downhill) 7K................4:51 8K................5:01 (another hill plus into the wind) 9K................4:51 10K...............4:35 __________________________________________________ _ Chip time.......48:53 Post-race: A new PR beating my old PR by almost 4.5 minutes. I felt great. I guess that means I should have pushed harder. I cheered Opie on in, said a quick congratulatory to him on a fine race, and told him how I did. He went to get some water and I never saw him again to find out how his race went. Thanks for reading, Paul

Good job Paul. Keep at this distance and you may surprise yourself with even faster times. Very encouraging race. Stay well my friend. Spareribs

Congrats on the race Paul!

Did I read that right? A 4 1/2 minute PR in a 10K? WOW! Paul, that is fantastic! Besides that, you finished strong and felt great at the end, which means you probably have more PR's to come. Congrats!

Congratulations on a HUGE PR!!! That rocks!