Last Sunday I ran my running club’s longest race, 26.2K / 16.3 miles. It’s small (less than 200 runners!), and very low-key (no shirts or medals), but it only costs $3 for pre-registered club members! It’s always been one of my favorite local races. Even though it’s only 10 miles from my house, it feels like a world away. We run by farms and fields, passing sheep, cows and horses. I just love it and look forward to it every year.

We aren’t, however, always blessed with good race-day weather. It seems it’s often one of the first cold(ish) days of the year, and often rainy. This year? It was a chilly 45* at the start, with 60% chance of rain. Well, we got through about 40% of the race before it started raining 🙂

So it was cold. And it was wet. And — oh yes — it was hilly.

I was only one week out from the Wineglass Marathon, but I felt really good, hills and all. I was running with friends which kept it fun, and we stuck together for the first 12 miles or so. We split up at a water stop — one wanted to keep moving, I took a quick pit stop to refill my water and have a couple orange slices, and the third took a longer break / walk break.

I did catch up with the speedy one two miles later and we finished together. I meant for this to be a moderately-paced training run rather than a race … but it turns out this was my fastest time for this race (and distance) by five minutes!

Despite the “gentle rolling hills,” we actually kept a pretty even pace. The 10:13 mile was my pit stop (which came after one of the biggest hills, 9:50).  I’m pleasantly surprised with my pace at the mile 14-15 incline. I guess I was recovering at mile 16 when the hills stopped, but I managed to finish strong!

Yup, still one of my favorite races. I’ll be back again next year!