RACE: Annapolis Ten-Miler @1:24:25, Annapolis, MD

My sister and I signed up for the Annapolis Ten-Miler primarily because of the wind jacket the finishers get. The course is hilly and there's a 12-minute mile pacing requirement, so it was also a neat challenge.

We drove down to Annapolis to the Naval Academy's stadium the day before to pick up our race packets and surprisingly that was a very quick deal.

There was just a race number to pick up since we were using our own ChampionChip and there's no t-shirt or other "goodies" -- the finisher's wind jacket was the only bling. It was quite efficient and there were a fair number of shoe and clothing vendors.Anyways, we drove down there again early the next morning to find good parking and get to the starting line. I said bye to Cindy and moved to the front-ish area of the starting line since there's no characters to take pictures with at this race. And the race began.

I basically ran too fast for the first few miles, running near-7:30 pace. It was a really hot day, and the parts of the course going over bridges had no cover. But it was just my fitness that was low, and I had to take many walking intervals in the second half. I still managed around a 9:30 pace and kept my spirits high -- the course included some residential areas and in front of one house were some people in lawn chairs that had a table with small paper cups with a shot of beer (that was great!).

In comparison to the Army Ten-Miler and the Marine Corps Historic Half that my sister and I have run, the A10 ranks close to the MCHH (the ATM is droppable). The MCHH was incredibly organized with transportation etc and had a lot more bling (shirt, medal, coin, towel, Thomas Jefferson...), but the A10 had more eye-candy. Let me present to you our new favorite number, 4937:
Yeah, so Team Ugly Shorts should have no problem recruiting others to run next year's A10. Here are a couple of TUS on-course pictures:
After the race, I walked over to get my jacket, then over to get some watermelon (magic word!) and beer (yeah, it was 10am) before heading back to check on Cindy. I waited and waited but couldn't find her. I eventually headed back to the car... only seconds after she got there! (good timing). Anyways, from there we stopped by a gym so that I could get a shower, then Cindy dropped me off at the airport. It was a long morning, but it was good. Woo!

Here's a jumping pic and a pics of the our coveted wind jackets (with a backwards 'N'):
Thanks for the fun visit Cindy!

:)