The Big Race

Today was my first 10K in many, many years. The last one was in Pensacola, probably somewhere around 1994 and back then I was running not walking.

Dan and I were up bright and early to head out to Altamonte where the race was being held. Left at about 0600, wasn't sure how long it would take to get there and found it was only about 50 minutes so I had just a little over an hour before the race started.

We walked around a bit and admired the course they have at Crane's Roost Park, it is a beautiful area. Would really like to have a circle walk like that around here. It was only one mile around so I would be making six laps.

This was the area right behind where the start/finish line was.


My number, although I had pre-registered they didn't have my info but it wasn't a problem because I had my confirmation with me and they just assigned me a number. I would say there were about 50 - 60 participants. Most that were walking did the 5K.


Here I am starting off, nothing very official, the MC just said go and we went, no timer or anything like that. This is only the second year for this race so it was very small.


This is my medal I got for finishing. I did the six miles in 1:23:50 which translates to about a 13:53 per mile pace. Faster than I have walked since I started walking, right now I had been doing about 14:30.

All my laps were very consistent and that is what I was looking for.

I'm really glad that most of the course was in the shade because it was getting very hot by the time I finished.

Dan was reading my mind and for the last three laps he was there to had me a cup of water and that made all the difference in the world. It was actually a diet coke at the finish and let me tell you it tasted delicious.

We walked around before going back to the car so I wouldn't get to stiff but when I got out at Publix I could feel I had walked but now I feel just fine. Spent most of the day out by the pool reading and just getting in and out of the pool to stay cool.

It was a very satisfying walk and gave me a very good indication of what I can do and should be able to do in the future. The next race I have planned is in July so I have to look for something for next month, I think that will really help with the training.