There were quite a few things that stood in my way for the 2 weeks prior to this race. First of all I ran a long run of 14 miles and pulled my right ITB. The following week I ran a total of 3 miles. Secondly, I came down with the flu the weekend prior to the race and didn’t run at all. A quick trip to the orthopedist on Monday, Tuesday I rested, and then I ran Wed, Thurs and Fri with a race on Sat. Yes, I am completely stubborn.

After researching the number of women in my age group, 14, 3 of which were much faster than me, I decided that I would treat this race as a large group long run, which I did. 10 miles is a pretty neat distance to race. I really liked it, especially in the hills around Kutztown. Between miles 1-2 we were racing against a mennonite horse and buggy (wish I had my camera with me) and running past all these beautiful old homes, some dating back to the mid-1700′s. The scenery was fantastic! And the weather couldn’t be any more perfect. The temperatures hovered around the high 40′s and for a while there was a misty rain cooling us off.

(click image to enlarge)

The one thing I didn’t know about were the hills. I didn’t really research this race before I ran it. Typically, I run the race course if I can, or I study the course and know it like the back of my hand. This time I didn’t do that. Sure, I had heard it was hilly but didn’t worry about it too much because I train on hills, even race on hills, but not these hills. We just didn’t get a break. One hill would end, maybe a very slight downhill, a little flat area and then another hill. I ended up walking up two separate hills, something I always vow not to do. My ITB began acting up around mile 6. Walking up the hills was the smarter thing to do on this day for that single reason.

My splits:
1 – 8:30
2 – 8:52
3 – 9:58 (humongous hill!!)
4 – 8:27
5 – 8:19
6 – 8:37
7 – 9:04
8 – 9:09
9 – 9:54 (final hill … had to power walk up this one)
10 – 9:27

Final time: 1:30:50

Placement Stats:
Overall: 145/209 (69%)
Gender: 51/87 (58%)
Age Group: 11/17 (64%)

Considering the hills and difficulty of this course I am extremely happy with my results. However, I do look forward to running a flatter 10 mile course in the future and seeing how I fare.