Race Report: Hermes Cleveland 10 Miler

This was my first race longer than a 10K as a masters runner so I was a bit nervous about what to expect. Also, I had some pretty rough training in April, missing a total of 7 days this month with some quad/hip flexor issues and a really bad cold. On top of that, the last two weeks I worked a lot of overtime, but that said the race went really well.

I ran 62:05 (6:12 pace) on a tough course, which included crossing two pretty big bridges and a stretch by an airport of about 2 miles straight into a really strong headwind. The first mile was flat and I went out very conservatively in 6:26 almost treating it as an extension of my warm up. Mile 2 was a long gradual uphill crossing the Carnegie Bridge from downtown Cleveland into the Ohio City neighborhood. I hit that mile in 6:24 though the effort was much faster. As I worked my way off the bridge I got into a really nice groove, hitting 25:00 at 4 miles. Soon after that we crossed another smaller bridge back into downtown. The 5 mile mark was right near Cleveland Browns Stadium and I hit that in 30:55 feeling very strong. There was a pretty nice tailwind for the next 1.5 miles as we headed by Burke Airport but man, the wind was rough coming back. After rolling off a string of miles in the high 5:50's/low 6:00's I hit mile 7-8 in something like 6:40! That said I was gaining on people who were ahead of me so I knew they were hurting just as much or more. I was never passed in the race after the first few miles so I was really pleased with my pacing. Once we got out of the headwind, I was able to regroup a bit and catch a second wind and finished pretty strong. I was 11th overall and 1st in 40-44.

I was really happy with my time and the fact that I ran pretty even 30:55/31:10. I think without the headwind from miles 6.5-8.5 I might have run about 20-25 seconds faster but I really can't complain. Next up is a 5 miler on May 26th where I hope to get as close as possible to breaking 29:00. Feeling motivated and back on track!