Pensacola Beach Jingle Bell Run for Arthritis - 28 Nov

One of my favorite races of the year.  One that is very special to me.  As a sufferer of 2 arthritic conditions, I appreciate all the the Arthritis Foundation does.  This is also my first 10K of the racing season.  There have been years where the weather was a bear for this race.  Not this year.  The weather was about perfect.  Perfect for the beach anyway.  If you have read my race reports before, you know that the wind on these beach runs can be brutal.  It might not have been brutal this year, but the winds were pretty strong still.

The race got off on time at 7:30.  Since this was a 10K, I wanted to keep my pace around an 8 min mile.  I managed to keep this going until about the the 5th mile.  The winds had kicked my butt!  I usually don't stop on a 10K, but I did on this one.  And not once, but twice.  This ended up being one of my worse 10K ever. The worst one in a couple of years for sure.  I'm sure it didn't help that I had just ran a hard 5K only 2 days earlier.  Anyway, I finished at 53:25.  Good enough for 3rd place in my age group.  That was a complete surprise.  However, I was benefited by 2 of the runners in my age group winning the Master and Grand Master awards.  Hey, I'll take it!  LOL