Race Result

Racer:	Jeff Wolfe
Race:	Reston 10 Miler
Date:	Sunday, March 15, 2009
Location:	Reston, VA
Race Type:	Run - 10 mile
Age Group:	Male 45 - 49
Time:	1:18:03
Overall Place:	51 / 129
Age Group Place:	18 / 31
Comment:	First race of the year

Race Report:

This was the 19th annual Reston 10 miler (although I think there was 1 year it was cancelled). This has always been one of my favorite races to start the season. A very hilly 10 mile course several weeks before the Cherry Blossom 10M. I think my wife and I did it almost every year for the first 10 years except when she was pregnant. In fact, my wife won the race for the first few years. The first year, it was sponsored by Fleet Feet and she was the women's winner along with Bill Rogers who won the men's race. The last few years this race seems to have fallen on rough times and certainly receives very little support from the Reston running community.

The course runs along some of the same roads as the Reston Tri bike course so it is non-stop hills. The last time I did this race was 4 years ago and I ran right under 75 minutes. It was drizzly and cold in the morning but the rain held off during the race. Except for a short delay at the start, the race went off just fine. Several water stops were manned by the South Lakes HS track team and with so few people, there was never an issue getting water.

My only goal besides finishing was to try and get every mile under 8 minutes per mile. On my watch, I hit one mile at 8:24 but all of the others were under 8. I do believe some of the mile markers were wrong. I felt fine during the entire race but just couldnt go any faster. The good thing was that I felt I could have kept going at that same pace. My wife finished 3rd in under 73 minutes (probably her slowest 10 mile time ever except when she ran Cherry Blossom with me when she was 5 months pregnant).

Next up is Cherry Blossom 10M. Maybe next year we can get some RATS to run the Reston 10M race (there is also a 5K race which had less than 40 people running).