BEST. RACE. EVER.

This morning I ran the Presidio 10K - 6.4 miles. This was like the BEST. RACE. EVER. You are running right along the water until you run up a hill and then run across the Golden Gate Bridge. The start and finish line were right on the Presidio with a full view of the Golden Gate Bridge and Sausilito. It was beautiful and almost relaxing to run with a view of the ocean and the rocky Northern CA coastline.

My goal was to run under a 10 minute mile pace which meant finishing in 64 minutes. This would be easier said than done because the first two and a half miles were pure uphill running. You start right along the ocean and then have to climb a huge hill. Once on the Golden Gate Bridge you still have a slight incline until you reach the middle of the bridge. With almost three miles of continuous uphill running, I was really tempted to start walking. speed increase myEven with all the uphill running, I was running at exactly a ten minute mile pace. Luckily, what comes up does come down and once I hit the middle of the bridge, I got to go downhill. And that's when I picked up the pace. Almost the entire last two miles were downhill and I was really running at a fast clip.

My finish time was 58:27, well under my goal time (close to a 9 1/2 minute mile pace). What amazed me about the race was how similar it felt to my regular running on a treadmill. I really try and run the first mile at a ten minute mile pace and also put in an incline in the first half. In my train runs on the treadmill, I definitely pick up the speed in the second half. I am really proud of is that my speed kept picking up the longer I ran. Not only that, I had a wicked kick at the end and passed four people who were running ahead of me for the entire race.

I am looking forward to running this again. I was pushed for sure but ran well within myself. The added plus is that they had a ton of food for racers and post race massages. SCORE!