I admit I took a hiatus from writing this summer.  I was outside a lot and ran a lot of races.  I was inside a bit visiting with family who live on the West Coast and I get to see all too seldom.  So a little over a week ago, I ran a 10 mile race in Ithaca, New York.  As much as I love Ithaca, I live about 40 miles southeast of the city so I had to figure travel time into the race schedule.

This race is one lap of five miles if you are doing the five and two laps if you are doing the ten.  I loved the lap that we took from the Ithaca High School down into the center of the city, then out to Stewart Park and past Cayuga Lake, one of the Finger Lakes.  I was very concerned about the race at first as, regardless of all the hills in Ithaca, this course is basically flat.  The only inclines my legs felt were going up bridge inclines.

This was basically my birthday run.  My birthday was Sept 11 and the race on the 12th.  I looked down at that race bib and noticed the new number in the age area.  It was a very odd feeling.

The goal here was to finish the ten miles in less than two hours.  I finished in 1:57 so am very happy.  Below are a few pictures of the scenery that we runners got to take in that day.  These were all taken after the race and the post-race massage.