The 2017 edition of the Get in Gear 10K is in the books and I knew it was going to be a slow one for me. I’m not really sure how to explain it, though. I’m usually undertrained every year for this race, but had been able to turn in decent times the past seven years. This was my 16th in a row (17th overall) and GiG remains one of my favorite running events on the Minnesota race calendar: very well organized, beautiful course and huge turnout of “my people.”

The weather this year was a bit brisk, with a cold wind at the start. The sun came out, though, and I felt OK during the second half. I decided to start towards the back this year, so my first mile was slower as I wove through people. If I could throw out that mile, I would’ve just barely been at a sub-9:00 pace (far, far from my PR pace of 7:12). The rest of the race was fairly consistent, as I really didn’t want to force anything after all my heart tests. Here are the Apple Watch splits: 9:22, 8:43, 8:56, 8:55, 8:59, 9:04 (55:57 chip time – 9:01 Minute Miles). The results page showed me at 950 out of 2530 overall, 609 out of 1117 males and 70th out of 130 in my age group.

Seemed like there were a lot more half marathoners this year. Found out at the Lake Street bridge that they had a new course, so that probably explained the renewed interest. Looks nice, but Get in Gear will always be a 10K event for me.

A few other random notes:

• Took the train from our new house, transferring at the stadium from green line to blue. Took an hour overall and worked out fine.
• Great Harvest raisin bread and Pearson’s salted nut rolls both made a return appearance this year.
• It looked like they were giving medals to finishers of all four events (2K, 5K, 10K and half). Hoping this was just for the 40th anniversary and that they don’t go overboard with bling expense like some people in town.

Up next: TC 1 Mile on May 11th