Today was the coldest Strong Legs 10K race in the last three years that I've participated in it.
More used to 50 degree starts, this morning it was 33 degrees. I brought a bunch of different clothes to the Turner Field parking lot but in the end didn't wear my hat or gloves.
After the first mile, my windbreaker came off and was wrapped around my waist. In between the 2nd and third miles, I thought about a way to rid myself of the light running pants I was wearing (running shorts underneath). But since there was no practical way, I just left them on. I probably would have warmed up had I just worn shorts.
Overall, I ran a pretty consistent race, even though I was about 1:20 off of last year's time. Compared to last year, I felt like I ran evenly the first two hills (up Auburn Ave.) and then later in the Central Park neighborhood.
But what surprised me was that after that 4th mile hill, I felt like I was done. There was one more difficult hill, the overpass on Juniper over Georgia State and I was surprised I didn't lose a bunch of time in the fifth mile.
In the last half-mile, I settled in with a group of three runners. They helped me around the curve toward Turner Field but on the last hill I had broken free and kicked my way in to get under 50 minutes. It's the fourth consecutive 10K I've run in (dating back to last year's Strong Legs 10K) that I've qualified for Group A of the Peachtree 10K.
I think I'll resume some more hill training runs. After being very comfortable with the hills in the Doug Kessler Lightning 10K and the Kennesaw Locomotive Half Marathon, I was a little surprised to have trouble with the race's third hill on the overpass.
Time: 8:04 a.m.
Temp: 33 degrees
Gear: windbreaker, CFLST, SST (Carolina gray), running pants, shorts, Nike Air Pegasus+ 26/D.
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