Sunday, May 16

Running the Capitol Hill Classic 10K

Today was the 31st running of the Capitol Hill Classic 10K race.  The race benefits the Capitol Hill Cluster School, a DC public school serving about 1,000 students from pre-school through 8th grade.

My goal was to finish in less than 50 minutes.  My clock time was 50 minutes and 15 seconds, but my net time was 49 minutes and 19 seconds, with an average of a 7 minute 57 second mile.  Of the 1,135 men that ran the race, I came in 378th.  In my age range (45-49 year olds), I came in 33rd out of 94 racers.  For some reason they divide the results into men and women separately.  There were many woman who beat me also, but I have way of knowing how I ranked overall among both sexes.
Running with Blue Shirt
 I was very happy with my results.  It was a perfect day for a race.  It wasn't too warm or too cool or too humid.  The toughest part of that race is running up Capitol Hill.  It comes in the last mile of the race and it is a bitch.  I could have used my blue sponge.  I was struggling.  Anyway, I made it up the hill and was able to recover enough to sprint the last few blocks to the finish.

Interestingly (to me at least), I ran this same race 2 years ago with a net time of 50 minutes 17 seconds.  I'm 2 years older and almost a minute faster.  It isn't a huge improvement, but it is better than getting worse.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations!!

Ken Riches said...

I think an eight minute mile is pretty good. Congrats.

laurie said...

well done, Mark!

Sara said...

Mark, that's awesome! You killed that hill and that hill killed me! I can't believe I made it today. It felt like the longest 6 miles of my life!!! I can't believe you came in 33rd for your age group! I can't find my name listed on the results page :(

Sara said...

Yeaaaaaaa!!!! Wooo hoooo!!! I shaved 30 seconds off my time since the Cherry Blossom 10 miler! THANKS FOR GETTING ME TO THE RESULTS :) You just made my night!!

Raybeard said...

There's nothing quite like that post-race 'buzz', is there? When I was able to run in events like this the 'high' I got afterwards was noticeable - and addictive. Very well done, Sir!