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I had a great time yesterday at the Monument Avenue 10k.  I need to learn, however, to take more pictures of the people I’m with.  I car-pooled with 3 of my neighbors and realized after I got home that I forgot to take pictures of any of us!

It was a great morning for running.  The weather was cool, but not too cold at somewhere between 45 and 50 degrees when we started.  No rain, cloudy skies and plenty of humidity.  Of course, at 50 degrees, you don’t really notice the humidity.

The Ukrop’s Monument Avenue 10k had a record-breaking 32000 registered entries this year, up 2000 from last year.  And, if you look at the pictures below, you’ll see about half of them!  This makes the race a little crowded and the organizers of the event, Richmond Sportsbackers, have gone to seeded starting waves.  Each wave consisted of at least 1000 people and were started one minute apart.  I was in wave MA and started about 15 minutes after the official race start. I think this works pretty well.  However, the course still seemed a little crowded, so I think that the starts could have been more spread out (maybe 2 minutes), or they could narrow the qualifying times for each wave to reduce the number of people in each wave.  

I think, because of the size of this race, that most people aren’t here for a new Personal Record.  However, I did record a new PR yesterday!!  My official time was 52:08.  I placed 464th in my age group and 4013th overall.  Jeff officially gets bragging rights for this race, finishing in 50:58, he has me beat by 1:10.  At least until May.  I’ve got to talk him into the James River Scramble at the Dominion Riverrock festival.  

My neighbors all finished well.  Rich, one of our neighborhood marathoners, and John, just coming of an injury, both finished at 49 minutes even.  Jim, who doesn’t describe himself as a runner (yet), finished with a very impressive 51:53!  I definitely have to let him know that he’s now a runner!

I also can’t forget my favorite Boston marathoner, Bill.  Especially since he’s the only one who remembered to take a picture of me!  Bill finished in 51:35 — just one week after running a full marathon!  

Overall, I think this was a very successful day for all!  I think everyone either achieved a new record, or set a new goal!  

For more coverage, please check out these local bloggers!

• Running … Because I Can: Hello PR, it’s been a while
• Random Thoughts While Running: 2009 Ukrop’s 10K
• Ride Sally Ride (Run Sallie Run): Ten Things I Learned About Life, Love and Running
• Dean Hoffmeyer’s slideshow of his photos of the race.

Or, the SportsBacker’s website has more coverage of the race and costumes.