Happy 4th of July everyone!
For the 6th straight year, I participated in the Pacific Palisades local event: The Will Rogers 5k/10K. This was the 34th running of the event, and I selected the 10k. About 1000 people competed in the event, and I came in 90th overall and 9th in my age group. This is pretty much on track for me.
One interesting stat is what is called Age Grade. Basically, they look at the world record time for the distance and then factor in your age. I performed at 64% which is good. The highest I've been in any event is about 70% and usually I'm more around 60%.
Two aspects of the race that pleased me. The course features 600 feet of elevation climb. I attacked the hills employing a very fast turn over of my feet in short steps. That kept my pace around 7:30 - 8:00 on the step parts. Overall, I clocked in at 7:14.
Here's a link to my results. I ran a minute faster in 2007 and 3 minutes slower last year. (The other 3 times I ran in the Palisades, I ran the 5k.) This year, I also ran 5.8 miles prior to the race as I wanted to go 12 today in total.
And because it is a community event, I ran into a couple of friends after I finished which was nice.
All in all, this was a great start to a wonder July 4 here in 90272.
