Almaden Times 10K - San Jose CA

No convenient marathons or ultras this weekend, so I settled for a little local race. Its held at Leland Junior High in Almaden, somewhat close to Almaden Park where the San Jose International Triathlon is held. The run course seems to share that same bike path. We started running south on the road from the school, turned to the left and got onto the bike path at around the one mile mark. My goal for the day was to run 6:20 miles and do under 40 minutes. With a warm windless morning, running along a protected bikepath (better than just plain roads) and cutting the tangents, and always finding someone to draf off of, I seemed to be clocking 6:10s.

Then we ran north on the bike path, past the school again at around mile 3 and stayed on the bike path. The turnaround was about a mile and a half north of the school. We then started running back. The turnoff of the bikepath sort of sneaks up on you. Once I saw it I started sprinting, but it was a bit too late. I also ran up into a woman with a double stroller from the 5K, taking up the entire finishing chute.

Despite that, I ended up finishing in 37:47, my best 10K road race (something I generally avoid) in quite some time. I ran into Steve Sokol in the finish (he and his son had done the two mile), and we waited around for his wife to finish. A nice day for a race but anything less than a marathon doesn't seem like a real effort anymore.