Pittsburgh Great Race 10K

Race: 10K run
Date: September 30, 2012
Location: Pittsburgh, Pa
Time: 52:19
Overall Rank: 2487 out of 8207
Age Group Rank: 236 out of 517
Results: http://results.active.com/events/city-of-pittsburgh-great-race-5k-10k/10k

This is a huge race with 8,172 particpants in the 10K and countless more in a concurrent 5K race. Due to the size of the event, we had to wait at the starting line for about an hour before the 9:30am starting time. The temperature was only 51 degrees. This made me very cold--shivering, in fact. The actual run was easy for about 3 miles. I wasn't even breathing hard. But after that, the race lost some of its fun. Despite some heavy breathing and painful calf muscles, I enjoyed the various bands that played for us along the route and the cheering spectators. It was raining some of the time, so those spectators were just as dedicated as the race participants. Well, almost.

My pace was not as fast as my 5K personal record, but it is very, very good considering the distance and my poor training regimen these last few weeks. In fact, I ran faster than 54% of men in my age group. This is my first 10K race, though I did do a 10K run as part of a triathlon earlier in the summer.

Pittsburgh Great Race 10K official certificate for finishing.

AMYMSA Swim Meet

Race: Masters swim meet (scy)
Date: September 16, 2012
Location: Sewickley, Pa.

First swim meet of the season at Baierl Family YMCA:
Event #1: 200-yard freestyle relay
Time: 2:12.23
Age Group Rank: 1 out of 1
Great to have a new team member who appears to be one of the top 3 fastest people at the whole meet. I am not as fast as him, but my dive was awesome.
Event #2: 50-yard butterfly
Time: 33.53
Age Group Rank: 5 out of 7
I beat my personal best by >1 second, had a great dive and a great turn, and I only swallowed one mouthful of water (oops).

Event #3: 100-yard butterfly
Time: 1:21.78
Age Group Rank: 2 out of 2
I beat my personal best by almost 2 seconds despite having to pause at the midway point. I pulled myself together though, and finished the last 4 strokes without breathing.
Event #4: 200-yard freestyle
Time: 2:41.57
Age Group Rank: 5 out of 5
Arms still burning from the butterfly, I had a great dive and kept neck-to-neck with everyone in my heat for 125 yards. Then the guy next to me took off. This depressed me for 50 yards or so and then I went all-out at the end. I did not beat my personal best but it was a good swim and I'm happy.
Event #5: 25-yard breaststroke
Time: 17.16
Age Group Rank: 1 out of 3
No great expectations here since I knew I'd be tired. But I covered the distance in 17.16 seconds, beating my old time of 18.5.