Last Sunday, I ran the inaugural Capital City Classic 15k (formerly was known as the Governor's Cup) sponsored by Bryan Health, the Lincoln Track Club, and others. It was a very fun race. Although I had never run this precise course before, much of it coincides with both the Lincoln Marathon course (Normal Boulevard) and the Good Life Halfsy (Lincoln's point-to-point half-marathon). Arrived early for the race, parked a few blocks away. Some parking was sealed off near the Nebraska State Capitol due to the race running around 1/2 of the building (2 of 4 side streets). But it was a beautiful autumn day, sunny, a little breezy. There were a few more hills than I was expecting but will talk about that later. I decided to carry my OrangeMud single hydraquiver vest with water so I wouldn't have to stop much for water during the race. This was a very good speed test for me in preparing for the Good Life Halfsy that I am running in November. Just wanted to see how long I could hold race pace to PR my half next month. The race starts in the shade on the south side of the Capitol building. We started about a minute early (no big deal) after the wheelchair participant got a short headstart. Knowing that the 5k runners were going to leave 3 minutes after us, no 15k runner wanted to be "caught" by a 5k runner. So there was a burst of speed at the beginning. After running north on 14th Street for one block, the course turns east onto K street, which becomes Capitol Parkway, which becomes Normal Boulevard. We turned south on 56th Street (almost at Holmes Lake, not quite) and continued south until Calvert. On Calvert, the race course turns west and continues west until about 17th Street, when it winds back towards the Capitol. I really like that the course finishes allowing us to run the "wrong way" on K Street (with lanes safely blocked off), like the old Lincoln Marathon course used to until they changed it. Then the course winds back to the finish. It's an out and back rectangular loop.

First, I want to give major appreciation to all the traffic police on this course. There are some very busy crossing streets that this course crosses and they kept us safe at all times.

I got off to a good start, 6:37 a little under my target half-marathon pace. Then I slowed down a little. The first 5k was pretty fast: 22 something minutes. I got excited early when I looked at my Garmin Fenix 3HR and saw a +8 into "good" HR range. That showed me that I had a lot of energy to utilize during the race. Unfortunately on hills, my heart-rate tends to spike a little.

One decision I made was to employ walk breaks. I've been training for my half-marathon using regular routine walk breaks. So I used about 2:00 total of walk breaks here: one minute of :30 breaks and the rest were about :15 each (two were water stops). That was done to drop my heart rate a little and to let my lungs refill (as an asthmatic). Also to conserve energy.

Although I had made the determination that I was not going to stop for water, I did near the end stop for at least 2 water stops. My OrangeMud bottle was almost empty and didn't want to run out of water. I skipped at least 3 or 4 water stops during the race. It seems like the water stops were about every 2 miles or so.

One part of the race that people should prepare for is the hills on Calvert Street. Here I encountered the wheelchair participant very bravely and courageously spinning himself up the hill. But I noticed he was struggling a little. So I gave him some encouraging words, told him I was proud of him, and that he could do it. Not only did he finish, he passed me on the way to the finish so he recovered. All of us seemed to slow down a little on these hills. Do some hill work before this race if you are running the full 15k. It will help. I wish I had done more hill intervals prepping for the race.

My back was a little sore so I wore a T-shirt (my Run Laughlin shirt) under my BibRave shirt trying to keep my back warm. That was probably a mistake. With the OrangeMud vest on top of that, it got too warm for me after about 5 miles. Next time just wearing the singlet. With a breeze, it's sometimes hard to tell how cool you may get during a race (depending on cloud cover).

I did seem to get a little dehyrdated but had water with me and water stops were everywhere.

The crowd to cheer us on was a little thin in spots but the people that turned out were very supportive (touch this sign for POWER was a common one), kids with high-fives. It was fun to see hundreds of pumpkins out on Sheridan Boulevard returning to the Capitol. Someone was having a pumpkin sale. And there is significant tree cover protecting us from the sun on Sheridan Boulevard. Still wise to wear a hat or visor. I wore my BibRave Buff (which worked well) but perhaps a visor may have been wiser for such a sunny day.

When you can see the State Capitol from 17th Street, we know we are near the finish. That's about 8 miles or so into the race.

The exciting part of this race for me was that I knew I was going to PR this race given that I have never really raced this distance. And that happened. 1:12:21 (7:46 pace). Good for 10th in my age group, 47th overall. Slower than expected but very pleased with it for a sunny, warm day with unexpected hills.

After the finish, I absolutely LOVE that they had 5 different flavors of Italian ice (i only tried peach and pineapple) but both of those were magnificent! Especially on a hot day. They also had bananas, cookies, water, pop, etc. So I grabbed a banana too and more water.

It was great to see one of our local Galloway group fellow runners finish 2nd in her age group (by less than 1 second). She was pleased with her race, too.

Overall a great race experience. I think about 900 runners ran the 5k and 15k together. Not sure how many ran the 15k (at least 250 I think). So once you get into the middle of this race, you may find yourself alone and we all have to find ways to push through that. Sometimes it's nice to run alone for at least short stretches, though. We all need our space.

Great race, definitely want to run this one again. I think there's a kids' race of 1 mile with this too for those of you with kids. Great fun for the whole family!