Purity Moosic City Dairy Dash

Even though this was only my second year running it, I really look forward to the Dairy Dash. The course is flat, there's a ton of people, the food is awesome, and it's very well run.  Not to mention, winning ice cream instead of a medal is an excellent trade-off.

A couple of weeks ago, I debated running this race all-out and trying to under 30 minutes. I never ran a serious 10k when I was in great shape, not to mention being a 29 minute 10k guy sounds a lot cooler than a 30 minute one. I felt like I had the fitness but with a race scheduled next week, I decided to run it as a tempo run and try to run just under 31:00.

Last year, I was able to win this race over Alex Moore (who lost his chip) and this year, I didn't know who would show up.  I did my usual 15 minute warm-up and ran into Connor Kamm on the line.  Connor was the D3 National Champion in the 5000m a couple of years ago and is starting to get back into the swing of things. He wanted to run around 32:00, so I figured I'd be alone.

When the gun went off, we ran together for a bout a 1/4 mile before I started slowly pulling away. I hit the first mile in 4:52, which was faster than I wanted, so I slowed it down some.  There was some construction or something going on, so this year, you ran out-and-back on the greenway portion.  I like that way better because last year, it felt like I was stuck on that thing forever. Not to mention, there was a headwind on it, which turns into a tailwind after the turnaround. I was cruising along right near 5:00 pace with my next two miles in 4:59 and 5:01.  The pace felt a little quick but I was still able to relax.

After the turnaround, I was able to see a lot of my running friends racing, which always makes the running easier. I continued to stay in my rhythm with my next two miles in 5:02 and 5:03.  I knew I was starting to slightly slow down and I didn't want to run over 31:00, so I picked it up a little bit over the last mile to finish with a 4:52 last mile and 30:50 for the entire 10k distance.

The 30:50 was technically a PR but for the last 10k of the Team Nashville 10 Miler, my last 10k was around 30:40.  Overall, I was plenty pleased with my time and the effort I laid out.  I feel like I definitely could have run under 30:15 if I went all-out, if not under 30:00.

After the race, I was able to devour a ton of mac-and-cheese, ice cream sandwiches and chocolate milk.  Sadly, the Krispy-Kreme donuts were gone before I could attack them.  I really enjoyed running this race for the second time and look forward to next year!