My Stockade-athon race recap

I ran the Stockade-athon yesterday. It was my second time running it, and I literally decided to register for it about 10 days ago.

I am glad I did.

It was challenging for me - yet it was also simple since I was just coming off a marathon.

How can that be? Well...It was challenging because I wanted to push myself. When I ran it in 2011, my time was 1:38. I was secretly hoping to come in before 90 minutes. If I manged to meet my goal - that would mean a major PR for me!

The weather was perfect for running. It was in the mid-40's and it was fairly sunny. I was running it with a few friends, and we all arrived in Schenectady and hung out inside the Proctor's area while we waited for the race to start. The course was very different from two years ago. It was nice that it started in downtown Schenectady instead of Central Park. We could wait inside and not be shivering outside using up precious energy.

Soon it was time to line up and off we went.  I decided that I was going to stick to my run/walk plan. And, I am glad I did. It helped me with my breathing, and it also gave me a break on some of the hills. One thing that I changed up, was that I left my water bottle at home. In retrospect, I wish I hadn't done that. I realized that I like to have my water when I want it. Often, while I was running along the course, I found myself wondering when the next water stop would be. It wasn't that big of a deal - but in the future, I will always have my water bottle for anything longer than a 10K.

As I said before, the  course was completely different. It started on a downhill. Then, the next 3-4 miles were a mixture of flat roads with some gradual, but long inclines. There was one steep hill also. But the last 1-2 miles were all downhill and all flat. In fact, the race finished with a half mile downhill. It was awesome! The course also went through the stockade (for about a hot minute), and then it went along the river for about a half mile. It also took us through some lovely older neighborhoods. All in all -  I have to say that the course was SO much better than it was two years ago! Big improvement. Kudos to the people that made the decision to change it up.

So - did I meet my goal?

Yes. I did! I crossed the finish line in 1:28:14. I was pretty pleased. That was a 10 minute PR for me!

And - I should mention that I did it all by using my run/walk method! I am telling you - the method works. The fact that I walked every mile for one minute -and still manged a 10 minute PR proves it. It's the way to be!

My stats:
1:28:14
9:28 pace
I was 64 out of 121 in my age group.
I was 1072 out of 1671 runners.

It was a great race to run, and it is definitely one that I will try to run yearly from now on.

Next on tap- is the 10K Troy Turkey Trot!

Have a great week!