Air Force Association Veterans 10k and 5k

The Hal Higdon Marathon training plan for this week has a day of rest on Saturday and a Half Marathon race on Sunday. Not being interested in running another half marathon race at this point, I substituted a 10k race today and I'll do an easy 10 miler tomorrow morning.

 

There is a nice 10k event this weekend in Bedford, the Air Force Association Veterans Fun Run that starts and finishes at the VA facility in Bedford. It's a fund raiser for the AFA so I thought it would be a worthy event in which to participate. I was happy to hear that Ellen was willing to join me running the 5k, so I picked her up at school Friday afternoon (Tricia was gracious enough to bring her back this afternoon). Here are Ellen and me prior to the start:

I thought I would "represent" the Marine Corps at the race so I wore my hat. There were a lot of people running in Air Force gear (naturally) and a few in Army wear. There were one or two others sporting the Eagle, Globe and Anchor of the USMC. Here are the flags set up at the finish line...

 My goal at the North Andover 10k in July was to break 50 minutes. I almost reached it in that race, running a 50:19. This time, 15 pounds lighter, I would be disappointed if I wasn't able to improve that time enough to get under 50. The race time temperature was in the high 30's, which didn't bode too well as I don't seem to be a good cold weather runner. The course isn't easy either, consisting mostly of rolling hills. But I ran the first mile in 8:28, which was a good sign as I have generally been in the 9:30 range for the first mile or two. I ran the first 5k in 25 minutes and change, which put me within striking distance of 50 minutes. About the 4th mile I really settled in and was able to increase my pace, finishing in 49:07 for an average pace of 7:55 per mile. I was happy to see that I negative split the second 5k in something less than 24 minutes, and got under an 8 minute average pace for the first time. Ellen did a 28:28 for the 5k, not her best but then she had a chest cold and ran anyway.

Here is Ellen finishing the 5k...

And here I am finishing the 10k...