I've been an on/off again "runner" since I graduated college a little over a decade ago. They do an annual 10K on July 4th near where I live and I've run it several times over the years. It seems like every time I run it, my time is at least 3-4 mins slower than expected because the weather is usually brutal. I sweat like a damn pig and most of the course is run through an industrial park with no shade. So I usually burn out, cramp up and slow down. There was only 1 water station and the course wasn't marked by distance. It was my first road race without a Garmin to track distance/pace, so I did my best to maintain what I thought was about a 6:20 pace.

It was hot like usual and again, only 1 water station. Miles 1, 2, and 3 were marked but not the rest. I hit a wall around 4, but pushed through and strided out/sprinted the best I could the last 200 meters or so. Came in at 39:59 so I finally broke 40 mins. Now I probably won't run it ever again!

So it was a cool sense of accomplishment - albeit one that really no one outside of me cares about, lol.