Hale Freezes Over 10K

Today was the Hale Center Theater 10K. This is only their second year doing the race so the crowds weren't overwhelming, but still competitive. In finished in 47:25 which put me in 5th 4th in the age division and 11th 10th overall. The reason that the results changed is because a person in my age division actually missed the 10k turn and ran the 5k course. My friend Supecords ran this also and finished in 44:43 which put him in 3rd for his age and 9th overall. Here's my breakdown.

• Organization: Top Notch. They had plenty of volunteers on hand for the packet pick-up, race guides, police presence, etc. I had my unofficial printed out time before I exited the finish corral. 
• Course: Tough. I looked up the course online last night and saw that there were some really big hills. I readjusted my finish expectations knowing that I haven't put a lot of time in hill training. 
• Shirt: Nice. I like the shirt for this 10K better than my marathon one. It's a much better quality shirt also.
• Prizes: Since I finished 5th in my age division there was no way I would get a prize. They only went two deep in the prizes (bummer for my friend), but the quality of prizes was great. The overall first to third place finishers received great prizes, including season passes to the theater, in addition to a sweet looking medal.
• Post race food: Typical fair of water, apples, oranges, hot chocolate/cider...but they had a local pizza place supply fresh hot pizza. It was fabulous pizza.
• Post race raffle: They went above and beyond what I have experienced. Most prizes had a $25+ value. I won a pair of hockey tickets.

I'll definitely mark this down on my list of races for 2011. They also offer a Halloween costume race that sounds like a lot of fun.