Race 10: Hit The Brixx 10K

I've been focusing a lot on running this year (here is the first post of my year of even more conscious work-health balance) and today race 10 was Hit the Brixx 10K. I actually set an all time personal record with an 8:15 pace, two seconds per mile faster than I ran a 10K way back in 2000 (incidentally, if you run races and want to see old times, go to athlinks.com, which finds the old ones). Weather was a huge factor: high 50s and low humidity makes for great running.

Hit the Brixx is the best race in Charlotte. It is well organized (even with postponement because of Hurricane Florence) and friendly. It is downtown but parking is close and easily validated, and you can actually go into Brixx Pizza before the race for warmth and bathroom. After the race, there is free pizza and pasta, plus good beer from a variety of local breweries. Yes, pizza and beer on Sunday morning. It works when you've just run hard.

It is a hilly course. I pushed hard on downhills to make up for the inevitable uphill, especially between miles 3 and 4, not to mention the uphill end of the race. There are some switchbacks where you suddenly have to go up as well.

Next up: Rocktoberfest Half Marathon