This was the first year in 4 years or so I had been home for Thanksgiving, and I'm really glad i did. Part of the bonus of heading home was the ability to run a race with my youngest brother.
I've run this race over several years since I've started running, and it has been a very similar course in every time - I don't remember it ever not going into Kentucky - in fact, most races I have run that are in Cincinnati seem to cross the river into Kentucky - which is just part of the fun of running races in Cincinnati.
In general, I really do not enjoy the 10k distance. I feel like it is long enough to make me uncomfortable, but not long enough to really get fired up for - it is kind of a "blah" distance, and looking at my races over the years, my times in the 10k have not been as good as other distances (half seems to be my best distance).
Dave and I headed down there early Thanksgiving morning, and it was COLD. My phone said 19 degrees, and I had forgotten to pack running tights - so most of my effort before the race was just not to get frostbite on my thighs.
The race itself was crowded - as crowded as any race I think I had ever run, actually. between miles 5 and 6, I had Dave in my sights, but i got pinned in between a jersey barrier and about 15 people, and could not break out of it until I made the turn - which at that point Dave was gone (that being said, I shouldn't have been behind him to begin with - but hey, you get out of these things what you put in as far as training). But it was crowded - I think a total of 20 thousand people participated - it was pretty tough to move in these packs.
The Gun went off at 9am, and Dave and I took about 10 minutes to get to the starting line - again, IT WAS CROWDED.
Somewhere within the first 4 minutes, Dave was obviously itching to get going and I told him to go ahead - the one thing I've traditionally been good at is not going out too fast - my marathon times lately say otherwise, but all races previous to 2009 I was real good at overall race pacing.
I missed the first mile marker.
Mile 2 - 18:33
Mile 3 - 8:24
Mile 4 - 8:48
Mile 5 - 8:35
I managed to get in front of Dave at some point, because he came running up from behind me and gave me a whack in this mile. I then watched him take off again.
I will say this (and kudos to my little brother) he has a very good foot strike - i watched him for as long as I could keep up - and his footstrike looks really good. While i tend to be a heel striker (although much lighter than I used to be - still a heel striker) he has worked on his ability to land mid-foot and it looks really effortless.
Mile 6 - 8:37
.2 Miles - 1:34
Total - 54:33
Without looking back at my times over the years, I would say this is somewhere in the middle of my 10k times. 2013 Mike Kriston (yes, third person reference) is pretty happy with this result though - given that I am still trending around 235 pounds (20-30 pounds heavier than when I set my PR's) I can't complain about this effort and result.
This is a great race and highly recommended to anyone who has the opportunity to signup.
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