I hemmed and hawed over this race for awhile (it's a bit far for me) and ultimately ran it as a test run to see where I stand before I begin my next cycle of marathon training. I decided to run the 10K a few days before online registration closed, however, I ended up not being able to resister on the race site nor through the Active.com link that was provided. No matter, I paid the fee in cash on race day, and while it was an increased price, it would have been the same with processing fees online anyway. It was a cheap race, which is hard to find these days.

I arrived at McCook Point Park about an hour early and the parking lot was filling up fast. I highly suggest arriving early or searching out alternative parking when coming to this event. Registration was a breeze, but because I hadn't preregistered I didn't get a shirt. And they actually had smalls that were small! Ah well, I don't *need* another shirt...

The course was an out & back through residential streets along the water. This made it not a great spectator course for my family, but it was a pleasant run for me. The out felt hilly, but that was simply because I was pushing the pace. After looking at my Garmin data I saw that it was indeed flat! There were ample water stations, though I used one in the first half. The volunteers were extremely enthusiastic and encouraging. Traffic was not completely stopped for this race, so look out! There were signs alerting drivers to the race, but with a few curves in the road it was difficult to see some of the vehicles, and I'm sure hard for them to see runners. Running the tangents also made navigating through traffic a little difficult since there were several curves & I did cross the road a few times. Just take caution.

The finish line was a little unclear. A set of cones was placed in the road (probably the start line) that LOOKED like the finish, yet the actual finish line was a bit further ahead. After six miles of pounding pavement, it's amazing how long 50 meters can feel! The crowd at the end was fantastic though and the bagpipes were a lot of fun.

Awards were given to the top 3 male & female overall winners (I came in third!) as well as to age groups, so lots of folks walked away with hardware. There were physical trainers with a tent helping out injured runners (I visited for my bum hamstring) and Flander's Fish was there passing out delicious cups of clam chowder and coupons. We ended up going there for post-race dinner and it was ah-maz-ing!! They were also able to take our party of 13 without any problems.

This was an awesome course to run if you are looking for a good time. I set a new PR by over a minute and a half with minimal training, and other runners around me seemed pleasantly surprised as well. There was also a decent level of competition (at least on the women's side) to help encourage you to push yourself. I would highly recommend this as an early summer race!