So I ran my first “official” race this morning, a 10k (6.2 miles) in Kirkland, a large suburb of Seattle. The race was called “SET the PACE for Prostate Cancer.” Today’s picture was taken by Melinda of me crossing the finish line. Ignore the time on the right. That’s for people running the 5k. My final time was 47:59.

For you competitive types, I finished in 18th place overall out of 103 participants. I was 14th overall for all the men, and 5th out of 15 in my 40-49 age group. I average 7:45 per mile, which I am very pleased with.

In getting ready for the race I tried to get set in my mind what an 8 minute mile pace would feel like for the 10k distance and set that for my goal. As I was running I had a hard time knowing how I was doing with it. Up until the 4 mile mark I hadn’t seen any distance markers. Then at the 4 mile post I was at about 31:30, ahead of schedule.

Among the challenges in running today’s race was trying at times to block out the presence of other people. Also, both the uphill and downhill portions of the race were more taxing than I expected.

To see the results, click here.