I found out yesterday about a 5k/10k run in Seattle - the 20th Annual UW (University of Washington) Dawg Dash. I decided to try going for the 10k and went to Road Runner Sport near Green Lake and filled out an application and paid the $25 entrance fee. I got a pretty nice long-sleeve shirt with the same logo you see here.

The 5k run started ~5 minutes prior to the 10k race at Husky Stadium on the UW campus just after 9:30 this morning. Because it's the "dawg" dash, the unofficial name of the UW Huskies sports teams, people could actually bring dogs with them. Suprisingly, they didn't bother me very much and only a small part of the 10k course overlapped with the 5k course where most of the dogs were.

I started out going not that fast because from my running experience I usually see people starting out too fast and then dropping fast by mid-course. I never wear a watch when I race, but I think I started out at about 6:30. Between the second and third mile I sped up a bit to catch up with a pack in front of me. I stayed behind a guy probably in his mid-40s who had a Portland Marathon 2005 long-sleeve shirt on him. By the 4th mile a guy came up from behind us and sped up the pace. I suffered greatly to stay with him and I kept saying to myself that I can't let him get again. I stayed with him until just in front of the stadium entrance where there was about 400 meters to go. Unfortunately he sped up and I couldn't catch him and one guy passed me before the end, but I definitely beat the guy with the Portland Marathon shirt.

I ended the race at I think ~37:27, which would put me at just over a 6 mile pace. I'll find out the official results soon. I posted the race on the right side of this blog along with some other previous races I ran before I started this blog. Hopefully they'll be many more in the future, especially cycling races.

[Monday, 10/31/05] OK, the results have been posted, and it turns out I finished in 37:44, which equates to a 6:05 pace. It's worse than I thought, but on the other hand I would have been mad at myself for just missing a sub-six minute pace.

Total: 10k (6.2mi) Race; 37:27 (6.01 pace); 37:44 (6:05 pace)