Akron 8K – Saturday, June 24
8:30am, Around the University of Akron
This summer I decided to do something a little different and sign up for the Akron Series Challenge! This means that I’ll run 3 races between June and September and receive medals at each one, but also some other item indicating that I complete the challenge. Runners can pick from a variety of distances, but I chose the following: June – 8K; August – 10K and Sept – Half marathon.
So, today was the first of the series. It was a beautiful morning, but I was surprised at how early the start time was – 8:30am! The other distance offered was 1 mile so I’m thinking they made the start time later due to accommodate families participating. 
Here is a picture of the finish line from the top of the stadium. Mike came with me today so that was nice to have him there. 
I met up with my friend, Debbie and her daughter, Megan so that was fun! She introduced me to a group of women from the Akron chapter of MRTT (Mothers Run This Town). I’m a member of the MRTT facebook group, but I seldom post. It was nice to meet them because they meet every Sunday in Hudson to do long runs and I’ve been looking for a group to run long runs with! Now the ice is broken so I wouldn’t feel so weird to show up sometime this summer. Cool. 
The run felt good. I walked very briefly up one hill, but finished strong. It is funny because this day marked the first day of my training for the half in September – it was supposed to be 4 miles, but I ran 5 (well, 4.98)- yippee! 
My time was 54:12 with a 10:55 per mile pace. It was faster than my March 5 miler, but slower than my December one so there you go! Here are the detailed stats:
10:55 per mile (view kilometer pace)
AGE GRADED % 48 percent (view time) 
OVERALL PLACE 1099 out of 1786
SEX PLACE 532 out of 1050 Females
AGE GROUP PLACE 59 out of 111 Females in the F4549 Age Group