This past Saturday I ran a local trail run in Jacksonville, OR that is a club race but has handicapped start times based on age/gender. It's fun in that respect which must be why I come back to do it, because it's such a difficult race that while I'm actually out there, I'm wondering "why in the hell did I sign up for this punishment??"

It's always hot, it's single track trails that are dusty, exposed, switchbacks that for some reason never seem to go down as much as they go up. 

my age group and gender gives me a 10 minute handicap. Per my garmin time, it took me 1:15 to finish 6.2 miles. per the race clock time it was 1:25.  I still don't get how AG placements work in a race like this though, because it's not a pure AG handicap. For example those in my starting wave were female age 12 and 46-51.  So not just the standard 50-54.  

A woman in my AG though was the first female finisher and another friend same age as me beat me by 10 minutes or so, so I don't imagine I placed anyways. lots of fast runners come out for this sadistic torture of a race. 

remind me next year when I think I want to run this how awful it was so I don't sign up. 

My 10th LL Bean 10K in Freeport, Maine went into the books this morning.

When I (unintentionally) transitioned from running as training for other sports to running for running's sake, one of the first times I pinned on a race bib was for this 10K....and just haven't had to miss one since. My runningahead log tells me that 10 years is 100km and 8hr 04m 38s of pounding up down the hills of South Freeport, as the locals like to call it SoFreeME.

Fashion report = no fashion, none what-so-ever...some shorts off the top of the 'clean' pile, and a shirt which doesn't get all wonky when soaked with sweat, spilled water, snot and other stuff.

Race is sponsored by New Balance & LL Bean, and randomly awards a pair of NB shoes to 400 of the registrants -- I scored shoes for the 3rd year in a row, so I'm all set for treadmill shoes for the next year. Nice!

For our area, this is a fairly popular event with 1200-1300 runners most years. Race starts at 0725 to have the runners out of the way for the parade which follows the kids fun run which follows the 10K. Parade goes down Main St opposite direction from the face finish and starts runners or no runners in the way...no one wants that to happen, so the race starts before any civilized person should be out in funny little shorts and shoes. So up at some unworldly early hour (aka mid-afternoon to Coastwalker) and out the door for the easy drive to race start.

I find this course a tough little nugget.  There's no rhythm to it...plunge downhill for the 1st mile, then heavy climb, then choppy up/downs, then a sharp death climb at 4.5...right when you're dealing with increasing heat, tiring legs and fading mental focus.

I adopted my proven-to-be-a-failure race strategy of "...start ok, dial it in, fade to the finish..." -- 5K splits of 24:24 and 25:28 showing how masterfully I executed the strategy to finish 10:15 behind Joan Benoit Samuelson, posting my 4th slowest 10K finish. (Age, a few extra pounds, some nagging hurts, it's all catching up.)

On this Independence Day 2017, I'll part with this clever entry to a collection of "IF the Declaration of Independence had been delivered via Twitter"...

"Time has come to part ways. We are born free & have suffered abuse. Read list & weep. So good-bye GB, we are now the USA"

I dunno if I did any part of the LLBean 10K course when I went for a workout on a visit to Freeport, ME last summer, but I still managed to find (as in 'couldn't avoid') some very challenging hills. So kudos to Milktruck for tackling that course 10 years running!

I went with a niece, her DH, and their 2 year-old to the 4 On The Fourth in York, ME this morning. Great weather conditions for the 8AM start at 70° with strong sun, dry air, and a light scootch of a breeze.

Fashion report: black shorts, white Granite State Racewalkers singlet, orange cap, black Topo ST-2s.

My goals were to finish, not be DAL, and maybe hit an 11:00 pace. My hip and shin have been bothering me, so I didn't know what I'd be able to do. But I taped my shin this morning, and it made a world of difference! I went from being in some pain most of yesterday to feeling perfectly fine. How the heck did the tape do that??

The clock at the first mile said I was at 10:42. Cool. I worked really hard to stay centered and to keep my turnover rate up. I tried to go after a few of the many runners who passed me, and that would always help for a minute or so. I looked at my watch at mile 2, and had gotten down to 10:39. The first 2 miles were mostly in shade, but #3 and most of 4 were in bright sun and it got a little tougher to maintain. I was very happy to turn into the school drive that led to the finish. I finished in 42:39 for a 10:40 pace and the shin was still good. This race has a walking division, but doesn't attract many competitive walkers, so I pulled off another 1st place. My niece (pushing the stroller with their DD) and DH were both well ahead of me, and both were happy with their times. It was a real treat to be at the race with them.

Jay

I got in a couple races this weekend.  This got me now 184 consecutive months with a race.  On Saturday I ran a 10k in Starbuck MN. This was a good race for old folks since the third and fourth finishers were both in the age group 60+. I finished fourth about 10 seconds behind the the other 60+ runner. I led him for the first 4 miles but he passed me on a fairly steep downhill and i couldn't catch back up once we got flat.  I don't I would have caught him but my knee gives me a good excuse. I hurt the knee last summer and I had a couple surgeries in the fall and I am not at all comfortable running downhill now. My knee doesn't feel very stable and I am afraid I am going fall. So I get into defensive mode and run very slow on the downhills. My time was reasonable, 42:33.

This morning i ran the Red White and Boom Half Marathon in Minneapolis. I finished this one in 100th place, a nice round number for that. My time was 1:35:03 and I finished third in the 60-64 age group. The race started at 6:30 and i live about  an hour and a half away from Minneapolis so it was an early morning.  I don't know if the early wake up affected me but i didn't feel well for the the first several miles. I was surprised that i felt better as the race went on. One of the concerns was that in the past year,since the race last year,  I had only run further than 9 miles once, in a half marathon in April. The big surprise I had when I got home and checked my gps I saw that in the last five miles all my splits were 7:20 or 7:21. I guess that is my current comfortable pace.

It was a nice weekend with two races. I am happy.

Tammy--I am sort of in the St Cloud area, pretty much in the middle of the state.

Good reports.  Nice racing, y'all!

Great weekend of racing! Milktruck, I love how you write.

I didn't realize SubDood and Spinach were both in Minnesota.

Tammy, you do it because it's fun! Right? Well done on a tough run. I don't think I get that handicap thing, either.

Jay, I can't imagine walking that fast. Nicely done!

I am also a fan of milktruck's writing.

Spinach, HermosaBoy, and MikeE are all here in Minnesota. I've had the honor of seeing each of them at least once at a race or running event. I'm the slowest of this group, but they are all nice to me anyway.