Run the River 10K - April 11, 2015

Today was a double race day.  Frequently, I do double race weekends (Saturday and Sunday), but it isn't often that I double up in a day.  The first race of the day was the Run the River 10K.  This race has been on my radar for races to do for quite some time, but I always had scheduling conflicts.  Run the River offers a 5K option as well as a 10K and has 1500 runners between the two races.  With one of my goals of 2015 being to focus more on 10K+ races, I opted for the 10K.

We arrived to the race fairly early knowing that entering the parking areas could get backed up (from previous experience as well as race emails).  Once we arrived, it did not take long for us to run into a few of our Team Awesome friends.

We parked a short 3 minute walk from the pre-race area, so we headed that way to pickup our bibs and get ready.  While we were waiting to line up at the start, we ran into our friends Kierstn and Jennifer.  Kierstn had ran the race previously, so it was great to chat with her beforehand to learn a little more about the course.

The 5K and 10K had different start times - 8am for the 10K and 8:15 for the 5K.  We lined up and were on our way before we knew it.  Speaking of which, I made a mistake - I forgot to turn on my Garmin!  About 30 seconds before we started I realized that I hadn't connected it to the satellites.  GREAT!  I quickly decided that I would just run my race by feel and just use by body to judge my pace.  Luckily, my watch connected a few seconds into the race, so I didn't have to "run naked."  Regardless, I knew that I was not going to push it as I had a 2nd race later on and a 1/2 marathon next week as well. 

The course was very flat (by Atlanta standards) and beautiful for sure.  You hit one small hill around mile 3.5 but that is really it - the rest is flat with very mild elevation changes.  Around mile 5.5 my friends Robin and Jeremy caught up to me.  I ended up running it in with Jeremy who had a great race for sure.  There were a lot of PRs in our group today, but not for me (it was my 2nd fastest though).  

I really enjoyed this race!  My only complaint was the huge traffic jam trying to leave the race, but I can look past that.  The course was absolutely wonderful (fast and scenic), great atmosphere, and well organized.  I will certainly look to add the Run the River 10K to my 2016 race schedule.