Lawyers Have Heart Race Report

Lawyers Have Heart 10k
June 8, 2019

Temp: High 60s to low 70s
What I wore:hat, tank top, a Skirt Sports Lotta Breeze Skirt, and Altra One 2.5

When I was offered a free entry to this race in exchange for a blog post, I jumped on the chance. I had never run it before and I’m trying to run all the races in the area. I’m a huge fan of the American Heart Association (I actually ran a “stop smoking” campaign for them in high school), so I’m happy to promote them. Plus, I’m training for the Marine Corps Marathon 50K and running to the race, running the race, and running home would be a great long training run. 

This race is often crazy hot and humid, but we were super lucky with relatively mild weather. I hadn’t had time to get downtown to pick up my bib, so I left my house early enough to pick up my bib at about 6:25am. The run down was uneventful and I got my bib in about 2 minutes. (10 minutes later there was a long line!) I tried to keep moving so I wouldn’t tighten up, but in retrospect, I should have kept running.

The race start was a little crazy. It’s a big race and it starts with a bit of an uphill and then a sharp turn. Since I wasn’t trying to run fast, it did not bother me, but if I were trying to race it, I would have needed to start closer to the start or I would have been frustrated. There was a surprising amount of shade and a nice little breeze, so it was a lot nicer than some years.

I’d heard less than stellar things about the 10K course, but I actually liked it. There were just enough hills to change things up and, as I mentioned, we had decent shade. Even so, I was happy when I headed down the hill to the finish. There were two adorable little girls running with their dad who were running out of steam, so I ended up running the last .2 of the race with them. I challenged them to beat me and they both did! (I will not confirm or deny whether I was sprinting or not.)

Overall it was a really well organized pleasant race. And the medal is one of the nicest shorter distance race medals I’ve ever gotten.

The good:

• It’s local and is very well organized. 
• I love seeing all of the law firm teams. Funny how I remembered so many of the names even though I haven’t worked in a law firm in 20 years.
• The weather was surprisingly pleasant.
• I love that it supports the American Heart Association.

The bad:

• It was a bit crowded for the first mile.
• My legs were crazy tight for the first mile of the race because I cooled down too much. If I were to do this again, I’d keep running after I picked up my bib, right up until the start…

The ugly:

• It was all uphill and hot on the way home. (I still managed to get in 15 miles.)

Would I run this race again?

Absolutely. Depending on the weather and what I’m training for, I might not make it part of a long run again, but I’d definitely run it.