Yesterday marked my 4th running of the Beach to Beacon 10k in the 15th edition of the race. This is a huge race here in New England, drawing some top shelf international talent and all of the big guns of Maine and the nearby states, as well as many friends and family members. There were 6,107 competitors that completed the course. For reference, the 10th placed finishers yesterday were 29:24 for men and 34:09 for women and the 100th overall finisher was 36:12. I was not sure what to expect as I have been fighting off an illness for the past few weeks that has limited my high end efforts and left me heading into the race under weight and lacking strength. Add to that the high heat and humidity that we have been in for the past few days and my plan was to go out strong and see what happens, maybe a PR effort or maybe a training run. Somehow this was also my first stand alone running race of 2012. The course is flat to slightly rolling for the first 5 miles and then a punishing set of climbs to the finish. I felt solid and in control for the entire race, but was getting crushed by the humidity and lack of strength by the time the course got to rolling and definitely on the hills. Overall, my race ended up being better than expected for how I was feeling leading into the race, but not a PR. Splits by mile were: 1: 5:59 2: 6:07 3: 6:04 4: 6:14 5: 6:10 6: 6:31 .2: 1:26 Total 38:34, 6:13/mile. Overall I was 167/6,107 and 14/321 in my age group. Encouraging effort for an 'off' performance heading to Nationals, now I just need to get my strength back and tune up for a great effort in VT.