There were Wonder Women, M&Ms and crayons on the course at the Seaside 10 Mile Run in Ocean City on Saturday.
These were just a few of the costumes runners wore as they took to the Ocean City Boardwalk for the race on Oct. 28. I was among the runners; I didn’t wear a full costume, but I wore my candy corn shorts and a witch hat headband, along with my orange BibRave tank.
Last month, I ran my slowest 10-mile race, 1:44:47, at the Bottle & Cork 10 Miler. I thought I wouldn’t be slower than I was the previous year, when it was extremely hot, but it took me longer to reach the finish line this year.
Of course, I wanted to beat that time, but my main goal was to see if I could beat the time I ran at this year’s Tim Kennard River Run, which I knew was 1:37-something (it was 1:37:56). I’m pretty far away from the PR I set in 2012, so I use more recent times when setting goals.
I’m happy to report that I ran my fastest 10-mile race since the 2016 Tim Kennard River Run, with a time on Saturday of 1:34:45.
My watch logged the course on Saturday as 9.86 miles, which was disappointing to me, because I’d rather a course be a little long than too short. I know that GPS watches are not always accurate, but the other results that I saw on Strava and social media were short as well.
Either way, my watch logged a 9:38/mile pace, and according to this calculator, that pace would equal a 1:36:20 for 10 miles, still my fastest 10 miler since that 2016 race. And maybe the distance was accurate — I know my watch pace was jumping around a little bit, so the satellites may not transfer perfectly.
I was a little chilly before the race began, so I was disappointed and worried when I felt hot during the first half of the race. The sun was definitely beating down on us runners.
I’d just done a 20-mile training run the previous weekend, so I expected 10 miles to feel easy. But I was going at a much faster pace than normal, and the first part of the race kind of dragged on a bit because it felt so hot.
I stopped at each water stop throughout the race — and there were plenty — getting two cups of water at most of them. Although there was some wind pushing against the runners in the second half of the race, it made me feel a lot better and stronger because it was helping cool me down. That part seemed to go by much faster, even though my pace per mile had slowed.
The race starts out at the Inlet, right by the Ocean City Boardwalk. We did a quick turnaround right at the beginning and then headed up the entire Boardwalk — with oceanfront views until the Boardwalk ends at 27th Street, then turning onto Baltimore Avenue and then Coastal Highway before turning around to come back.
I don’t always love out-and-back courses, and I usually opt for loops when I run on my own. However, I enjoyed this out-and-back because it was a great chance to see lots of people. I had several friends who were also running the race, and it was nice to see people both as I made my way to and from the turnaround.
I was happy to see a number that started with a 9 as my average pace. My watch logged an average pace of 9:38, which I am very happy with, as none of my marathon training runs have been at that pace — even the double-digit-distance races I did during training. All my miles came in under 10 minutes, as well.
I saw on the posted results that my official time was 1:34:45. It wasn’t fast enough to earn me any awards in the 10-year age group, which is totally fine — but they were cool awards!
All the 10-mile finishers did receive a nice finisher medal. There was also a 5K held as part of the event.
I got a food and beer ticket, and I exchanged my beer ticket for an Evolution Craft Brewing Co. Delmarva Pure Pils — I was excited to see Evo as races don’t always have craft beer, and my boyfriend brews at Evo. I also thought it was great that there was post-race candy, since it’s a Halloween-themed race, and I also got a cookie, a banana and soup.
I like the race shirt, which was a blue long-sleeved shirt with the race artwork on the back. I noticed that a couple clubs I’m a part of are on there as sponsors — the 11:30 Club (which I haven’t run with in a while) and the Ocean City Running Club (which I’m part of on Facebook but haven’t run with yet).
After the race, I headed to the Bayside Skillet for more food with my friends Veronica and Lynn. It was delicious, as always, and the portions are huge — but I sadly left my boxed food at the restaurant. (Luckily, I had eaten most of it there.)
This was a fun race and it will likely be on my birthday next year, since my birthday is on a Saturday and was the day before this year! I’ve never done a race on my birthday and would like to make that happen in 2018.
Splits, according to watch:
Mile 1: 9:05
Mile 2: 9:31
Mile 3: 9:32
Mile 4: 9:36
Mile 5: 9:47
Mile 6: 9:43
Mile 7: 9:49
Mile 8: 9:58
Mile 9: 9:58
Mile 10 (watch logged 0.86): 7:51
Official Time: 1:34:45 (watch time: 1:34:54; 9:38/mile pace).
(I didn’t round up mile times — for example, I didn’t round up 9:31.91 to 9:32.)
She Runs by the Seashore 
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