One of Richmond’s most popular races and named one of the best races in the country according to USA Today! I have been wanting to do this race ever since high school and I finally had the chance to do it!! I was stuck in a dag on boot this time last year, so I am thankful to say I have been injury free! *knock on wood*

The weather was very cold that morning in the early 40s. The forecast originally called for rain so I am glad the weather man was wrong! I was so panicky about finding parking and thankfully found a spot a few blocks away.

I cannot believe this is only my second 10k. My goal for this race was to aim for 8 minute miles. I was able to finish with 8 minute miles with my Shamrock 8k last month. I told myself if I could do it then, then all I had to do was just  push myself at that same speed for just a little longer.

I started in Wave E based on my projected finishing time. This was the first race I signed up for where I had to show proof of my previous race results in order to get into a seeded wave.

The course was pretty straight forward. If you can’t tell we literally ran straight down monument and back. There were sooo many people who came out for this race. With over 23,000 runners I was a little worried about it being too crowded.

I started off at a decent speed. I told myself I had to run a little faster since this was a 10k and also fairly flat. One thing I found quite annoying was that people kept trying to cross the street during the race. This happened many times in front of me. I did a lot of running from side to side to get around people. On the turn around running back up Monument, I noticed the massive storm clouds up ahead and was just ready for the torrential downpour. The wind started to pick up and I began increasing my speed towards the finish.

When I finished the race, someone complimented me for my speed towards the end and tried to keep up with me. It is always nice trying to pace someone during a race to help push yourself!

I am proud to say I was able to reach my goal! Now the next goal is to see if I can keep up this pace for a half marathon, which will definitely take some hard work and time!

I was very surprised to hear that it snowed on the course, but I must have just missed it!

After the race, everyone hung out in Monroe Park. There were some post race snacks and I was able to catch up with some good friends I had not seen in a while!