Inaugural Foster City 10-miler Jan 12, 2013

Race Director Gene said about 500 registered for both 10miler/5K races and up until 10 min before the horn blew there was no one at the start! Then, out of the woodwork they came and man we're talking some elite runners up front!

The weather was perfect, event well organized, we had use of the senior center and facilities instead of porta potties which was a nice departure from your basic race and the course was nearly all flat. There was a small bump off the start to go over hwy 92 and a somewhat larger one right before the finish.   But, when I say 'larger' let me put that into context.  The larger bump before the finish line was larger than at Moonlight run in Davis and of course smaller than the finish hill at Berkeley's half marathon.  Check out my elevation change below.

  I finished 20th in my age group with a 1:21:53 (8:11 min mile pace) which I was happy with. 

Number one in my age finished in 59:31 with a sub 6 (5:57) pace! 

Spectator support was sparse except for the occasional Good Samaritan giving us updates on the 49'er game. Terrain was mixed road and trail.  Runners had the roads to ourselves about half the time the other half we shared with Cyclists, etc.  I didn't observe any problems and all the people I encountered were friendly and shared the sometimes narrow paths well.

Runners could pick up their bibs the night before at a local sports store or at 7AM before the race started at 8:30AM.  I did the latter as I knew this was going to be a smaller race and RD and volunteers handled bibs efficiently. Long-sleeved technical shirts could also be picked up after the race for those that did race day bib pickup (one line for mens, one for female).  There were no finisher medals.  Finisher snacks consisted of bottled water, oranges and bananas.  There were also two light beers to be enjoyed for those that needed to wind down after the race (ME!) There was also Naked juice.

All in all it was a fast and fun run.