Annapolis 10-miler

The weatherman did what weathermen always do ... he lied! After promising cooler weather and lower humidity for Sunday, I was pumped and ready for a nice, not-so-hot-and-humid A-10. George and I had gone up to Annapolis the evening prior to the race, and had a nice dinner at the Chart House and a stroll around downtown Annapolis. I woke up on Sunday morning, bounded downstairs to the hotel lobby and was greeted with 85% humidity. The weatherman had foiled my plans yet again! Granted, it was rather cool outside - with temperatures in the 70s - and there was cloud cover so it wasn't too hot at the start, but all of that changed around mile 5 of the race when the clouds cleared. It definitely started getting steamy out there. Where was the cooler weather? Ironically, it arrived on Monday morning!

I had a great A-10 race. I had a lot of fun, and I got a refresher course in how I need good pacing. I ran my first 5 miles at 8:30's (too fast) and my last 5 miles in 9:35's (whoops!), for a grand total of 1:30:20 (9:02 pace). Not my best, but by far not my worst. Annapolis had all 3 H's this year - hot, humid and hilly. All in all, a good race that was well-run by the Annapolis Striders, and I will definitely go back next year for another dose of insanity :)

A couple memorable points from the race:

--I was wearing my XMP singlet, which has "Trained on Speed and LSD" on the back. At mile 8 of the race, when we were crossing the Severn River Bridge for the 2nd time, a guy next to me says, "I really need some of that LSD right now." hahahaha, that added a little bit of humor to a not-so-fun moment and made me smile.

--Running through one of the Annapolis neighborhoods where kids in Sunday dresses (and rain boots) were holding hoses and hosing us off. The kids cracked me - they didn't really care if they were getting their Sunday clothes all wet. They were just out there having a great time!

Rumor has it that the A-10 is a good predictor of marathon pace time. If I run 9 min/mile next month at Wineglass, I'm going to be one happy girl :)