I made a few mistakes which left me feeling rather uncomfortable for most of this race. Right after I started, I realized that the car key which I had laced in my shoe was going to come loose, so I had to stop, remove it, re-lace my shoes & commence running with key in hand for the rest of the race. That's when it dawned on me that I forgot my gloves at home. Dang - it was 30 degrees out and my fingers were frozen and painful 5 minutes after starting the race. Then, my headphones were not working so I couldn't listen to my iPod. This was a race where some music would have been good because I was just so darn uncomfortable in every way. It took me almost 2 miles to warm-up, and believe me, those first 2 miles involved a little bit of walking.

It wasn't until after about the 2nd mile mark when a 60+ year old guy passed by me, that I quit my mental bitching, and decided to follow his pace, and of course ... leave some wind in his face when I got up the energy to pass him right before the finish. Yeah there was a mean streak in me today. This strategy worked for the next 2 miles which was when I decided to walk for a few seconds. That's when a 70+ year old dude made his move and passed me. Grrr ... I thought to myself, "Oh hell no!"; and started running behind him following his pace.

That's when the 1st of the last 2 hills hit. The first one wasn't so bad because I thought it was the last hill, so I just sucked it up and started pushing up it. We (the 70 year old and I) passed the 60 year old dude, and I surprisingly made it all the way to the top without stopping ... that was when I saw another hill looming ahead! The 70 year old went on leaving me behind (I'm sure I heard him mutter under his breath, "take that little girly"). Unfortunately, I had to take another walking break - this hill had defeated me, but a young lady passed by me and shouted some encouragement, so I dug deep and started running again. Some town folk shouted that the race was almost finished, so I grimaced (more) and all but dragged myself through the finish line.

At the end I truly felt like I had to throw up, so I sat on a curb for a while before heading into the really nice (heated) "clubhouse". The race director for this one organized a great race. The clubhouse was well stocked with food, beverages, fruit, chili & coffee, volunteers were spaced out at regular intervals during the race - maybe every half mile, police were helping, and even though traffic wasn't stopped, it was very well controlled. I will definitely be doing this one again next year.

All that said, I'm glad this is my last race for the year because it's getting FROSTY! My first race was the Dutchess County Classic 5K on Sept. 19, 2010 and I completed a race every month since then for a total of 7 races. I'm thinking about a half marathon on 01.01.2011 in Albany, NY - but honestly, I'm sure it will be freezing that day, and I'm not sure that should be my first half marathon experience - yes, I'm a cold weather wimp.