One Down, Forty Nine To Go.......

 Given the season I've had it would have been very easy to draw the proverbial line in the sand after Dublin and say that's it.......however having reached the #250 medal plateau in Dublin I'm now looking down the road at #300 so w/ a potential seven more medals up for grabs between November 3rd and December 8th there was no time to sit back and call it a season so while the masses were off to New York City for the marathon the rest of us were heading to Camden for the Cooper Norcross Run The Bridge 10k

Another Sunday I got an extra hour in bed as our clocks went back this week and another Sunday the race didn't begin at Silly O Clock {8.30am} that said I still had to be up at 6am and out the door by 6.30am to get to the Camden side of the Ben Franklin bridge by 7.30am to give myself an hour to prepare

Good conditions for the first Sunday of November, between my socks, calf sleeves and knee sleeves I'm well insulated from the cold from the waste down but I went singlet and no shirt, short or long sleeved....how long I can continue that between now and Dec 8th remains to be seen.....it can be a crap shoot running over the Ben Franklin bridge in early November in the morning I've lucked out the last few years since adding the Run The Bridge 10k to my Fall race season, I recall its predecessor the now {sadly} defunct A To Z 10k from the Camden Aquarium to the Philadelphia Zoo that went over the Ben Franklin bridge one year in particular my hands were frozen coming off the bridge on the Philadelphia side b4 cutting thro Chinatown to the Parkway and eventually the Zoo

Got my customary clear start from the gun and made my way through the field on the left hand side of the bridge knowing the turn back across the bridge would be to my left, even though for whatever reasons this season I'm not running at the pace I have been my brain is still as sharp and if I can run less distance w/in the parameters of fair play to shave a few seconds off my time fair play to me

I was a bit bemused there were no mile markers on the bridge to indicate miles 1 and 2 I believe the 3 mile marker onwards was posted and while it's no big deal as most runner have Garmins I just think that just one of those things as a runner you expect, again not a big deal more of an observation

I had no agenda today other than to finish so when my Garmin said 8.16 for the opening mile I was non plus w/ that, knowing the opening mile is uphill it was always going to be a little conservative, since mile 2 was downhill the 7.45 split helped balance that out

7.59 at mile 3 I was give or take on 8 min mile pace and looking at 48 mins, again I wasn't overly concerned w/ pace, splits, speed overall/age group finish, take Dublin out of the equation I'd have come into this race off the back of the Run For The Blue 5 miler on Oct 20th and probably 2 weeks of solid training w/ maybe a 10 miler last weekend inbetween as it was this was my first run since Dublin and I probably still had some marathon miles in my legs, hopefully this week leading upto the Rocky Run on Saturday I can flush out any gunk in my legs during the week.

7.33 at mile 4 I'd taken advantage of the downhill off the bridge and now flat terrain on route to the USS New Jersey behind the whatever corporate name the concert venue in Camden is these days and heading back along the Delaware River towards the Ben Franklin bridge, 8.03 at mile 5 at this point any one I could pick off ahead of me was a bonus while it was a race I wasn't in " race mode" like Dublin last week if ye beat me ye bete me fair fucks to ya, just getting to the finish was enough 7.57 at mile 6 and now the approach to the track for the new finish this year maybe 150 meters or so....the track runner in me couldn't resist a kick coming off the turn and up the home straight to the finishline.

49.38.4 off 7.55 mile pace, 9 weeks ago at Philly 10k I ran 48.55 off 7.53 pace so throw in a marathon a week ago I guess it balances its self out, overall I finished 204th out of 1620 6th in the 60-64 age group 3.06 off the podium

It's another medal closer to #300 and another 6 miles onto my yearly mileage tally which is creepin' closer to beating last years tally, hopefully I can  log a couple of lunchtime 5 miles this week b4 Saturdays 5k and 10 miler at the {Sham}Rocky Run.....