BCS 5 & Dime

On Saturday, Nov. 8, I ran the BCS 5 & Dime in College Station.  I did the "dime" - 10 miles.  This is the last race before the half marathon in December.  It was a nice cool morning - temps in the 50's.  I left the house a bit overdressed with a long sleeve shirt with my short sleeve race club shirt over it.  Needless to say, I'm striping down in the parking lot taking off my long sleeve.  Not sure what I was thinking...since I easily get hot running?!?!  My running group had their tent set up, and it was nice to relax and chit chat before the race started.  We took another group picture before the race started.  This race is run in our running clubs "hood" - meaning we run most of this route on our Saturday morning long runs.  I guess it's good and bad.........good being familiar territory & bad being you have nothing new to look at.  I had an excellent training run the weekend before, and I was hoping to duplicate that.  I started out great where everything felt good.  I ran to mile 6 before stopping to refuel and hydrate.  By then, I was almost to the last turn towards the long stretch back to the finish line.  Then it was time tackle all the hills on homeward stretch.  I think the race organizers of this race series like up hill finishes.  I finished strong at 1:42:31 with a 10:11 pace.  That is almost 10 minutes faster than this race last year.  Not sure what factors attribute to this....more of a seasoned runner, weather, 3 days a week of fitness training, or maybe I just enjoy running....whatever it is, I'll take it!!  
I have two more long runs and then taper time before the BCS Half in December & then back to the training for the Aramco Half in Houston in January.  
Good feeling to be finished: