This is the second year I’ve done the Daybreak 10-mile race. Overall, it is a nice course with a beginning flat route that later incorporates a good downhill journey followed by a slow, steady uphill climb with bouts of flatness mixed in to break up the incline.

I originally signed up for the race when it first opened months prior. At the time, the price was a whopping ten dollars. To me, it was a no-brainer because while I rarely venture out of the 10k race scene, paying what basically amounted to a dollar a mile was worth it, especially if it included some sort of shirt. The week of the race, I got a couple of emails from the organizers which included race information, where to get my race packet, and what areas would be good places to park for the race. All of it was good to know, especially which parking lots were open with no issues.

I went to get my race packet the day prior to the race at Strictly Running. When I arrived, I told the staff my bib number, they pulled my bib sheet while confirming my name, and they asked me which shirt I wanted. This was the more interesting part, because this year’s Daybreak race not only offered a choice of a grey or black shirt, but the tech shirt was made by Mizuno. That is a double plus in my book. I was very stoked that I could choose and the fact that it was a tech shirt, even more so. I originally paid 10 dollars to enter the race, so I felt the race and shirt were a steal. They had a layout of the course, and I talked with the owner of the store a bit about the race.

The day of the race, we headed out to the middle of Columbia and parked at one of the local church parking lots which was designated on the map as an approved parking area. We made our way to the front of Strictly Running and did our group photo with our running group. We also watched the one-mile event take off at 7 AM and the first people to come across the finish line five minutes later. The Daybreak is definitely named for when the race takes place because it was earlier in the morning than most races I have done.

At 7:15, the 10-mile race started and I begin to move while being in the back of the crowd. This is my choice because I like to see as many participants as possible while running. Some of my friends think I’m crazy for doing this but considering my days of going anywhere near fast are behind me, I really don’t see a need to start in the front of the pack.

The first three miles are flat and it isn’t until you hit the 3.5-mile area that you see or feel any difference in elevation. At this point, I go downhill for almost a mile and it felt nice, but the whole time I kept thinking to myself, “that uphill is going to suck.” I continue along the course and skirt around Lake Katherine, all the wile looking at houses and roads that were affected by the floods a couple of years ago. Almost all the house along the entire route are nice to look at, and they run among a variety of styles which can break up the scenery out there. At about the 5.5-mile area, I noticed the uphill climb. It’s at the northeast end of Lake Katherine (which you may not notice by the time you go up the hill), and I could see people in front of me slowing down. We finally crest over that small hill and get a brief reprieve from the elevation increase before starting up another hill. The race course would continue this for almost the remainder of the duration. Around mile eight is where my mp3 player decided I was too sweaty to go to a new cardio playlist and I had to stop, wipe sweat off my mp3 player AND my hands, and continue on. That wasted about half a minute for me and it hurt me later on because once I stopped, my body decided that it didn’t want to do much more. I continued to run for another mile but had to slow down and walk for about 50-75 feet because my knee decided it didn’t want to go any further and shot an annoying pain up my leg. I dredged on and the pain eventually subsided. After a final turn, I could see the finish line, but that area can be a little misleading since it was still two blocks away. I pushed myself harder at the end and made it across the finish line and was rewarded with a Daybreak finisher’s medal.

The finish line area had some water, but most of the refreshments and activity stuff was happening behind Strictly Running. Runners could partake in a free beer or mimosa (they did the same thing last year), go to the refreshment tables and get more water, some Gatorade, a bowl of fruit, or even some doughnuts. A couple of vendors were also set up showcasing their wares.

While I didn’t mention it during my recap of the race, I want to say that the Daybreak had four water/aid stations set up along the course. While I didn’t stop at each one, the ones I did had both water and a Gatorade like drink available.

The volunteers throughout the course from the staging area to the aid stations and intersections to the finish line were all very friendly, encouraging, and extremely helpful. The race was very well organized, and I liked that I received several emails before the race to let me know what was going on, good spots to park, and what roads to avoid in the morning. Over 300 people took part in the 10 mile race, and that doesn’t include those who ran in the 5k race that took place 30 minutes after we started the longer race.