Hi friends & Happy Summer!

I kicked off summer ’17 with the Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) 10K, the second event of three events in the B.A.A. Distance Medley. I ran the 5K in April and plan on running the half marathon in October!

For those of you considering a trip to Boston, I highly recommend planning a race weekend around one of these B.A.A. races. People of all ages and abilities are welcome, but as you can imagine it is a fast course, with even faster elites at the front. Some of the best athletes in the world come out for the B.A.A. races and it is so exciting to be in the same field as them. And I’m somewhere in the middle! Here’s my recap:

It was a beautiful, sunny morning on the Boston Common at the start, but I knew it was going to get hot on the course! I wore my Skirt Sports skirt, a light moisture wicking shirt, my Asics a white UPF UV sun protection safe hat and sunglasses. I also applied Endurance Shield high performance sunscreen and lip balm as I was getting ready for additional sun protection. It works REALLY well since it was made with endurance athletes in mind. You can find it at your location running store, or with the link here.

Flat Gina ready for the B.A.A. 10K! Not shown: Endurance Shield sunscreen

Much like the 5K there was an encampment of tents for registration, t-shirt pickup, plenty of porta potties, and vendors setting up for post-race samples. MarathonFoto photographers were walking around snapping photos of runners and the B.A.A. unicorn mascot!

Self-selected corrals lined up on the Beacon Mall adjacent to the Common and things started to feel packed right around 7:45AM before the 8AM start. I met up with my running buddy, Jenn, and was happy to see her. I hadn’t seen her since the Marathon! I was feeling extra motivated to go as fast as possible.

Lining up for the start!

I was in the 9:00 – 9:59 corral and we went off fairly quickly. The course took us around the Public Garden up to Commonwealth Ave (the Boston Marathon course in the opposite direction), past Boston University for the turnaround and back.

B.A.A. 10K course map! Photo credit: B.A.A.

Around mile 2 we saw the elites on the other side of the road heading towards the finish! That is always an exciting part of these B.A.A. races. We were screaming wildly for them! And then we got to B.U… and things started to get hot. And sunny. And sweaty.

The crests in this area were amazing because we saw just how many other runners were participating. The field size was a little over 8,000 runners. Knowing we were all in it together was awe-inspiring and motivating. But I still had to focus! I felt great; light and cool. Water stops were available at each mile marker and I poured most of that water down my back to keep my core temperature down! My mantras today were “stay cool, stay light” and “smooth.” I continued to meander around people. (Okay, I know you’re not supposed to waste energy on this but with bottlenecking I couldn’t help it and had to pass people.)

Look at all these runners!

After the turnaround I knew it was going to be a fast 5K and still felt great. Jenn had to stop to walk and encouraged me to keep going, so I continued on and still felt great. I couldn’t help but feel like all the hard work I was putting into my WDW Marathon training so far was really coming through. I passed by the mile 6 marker and I gave it one last long stride for the finish!

I finished in 1:01! I was aiming for sub-1 but I was pretty darn happy with this effort! I know the next time I run a 10K I will be even stronger. 🙂

Post-race refreshments included Poland Spring water bottles (the best), Gatorade in a few flavors, various bagels, bananas, Clif protein bars and Craisins. I grabbed some water, gatorade, a banana and some Craisins for later and saddled right up to the awards tent to see the top 5 male and female winners! It was so sunny but I still attempted to snap some photos of the winners:

Top 5 Female Finishers: #5: Dominique Scott, #4: Monicah Ngige, #3: Buze Diriba, #2: Mary Wacera, #1: Joan Chelimo

Top 5 Male Finishers: #5: Daniel Salel, #4: Dathan Ritzenhein, #3: Teshome Mekonen, #2: Stephen Sambu, #1: Daniel Chebii

Overall it was a fun, fast race and I’d love to do it again next year! While it was warm, it wasn’t unbearable and I was definitely happy for that!

Jenn and I at the finish!

Like any good Bostonian, no morning is complete without a good iced coffee for the finish:

Ahhh. Stay cool friends and happy running!

Until next time, #willrunfordisney!