11K on 11/11 at 11:11

Veterans Memorial 11K (6.82 miles) in Stoneham, Massachusetts. Held every year on 11/11 at 11:11am, a veritable orgy of 11's. And with a cannon start. This year we were instructed to have a moment of silence just before the start, eveyone's silent with heads bowed ... BAM!!! The canon goes off signalling the start of the race, scared the b'jesus out of half the crowd, I nearly jumped out of my socks.

Fairly tough course, around Spot Pond, long gradual ups and downs, pushing fairly hard, hoping for sub-6:20 average pace, no dice, ended up with 43:35 (6:23 average pace. Actually hit the 10K mark at 39:15, 6:20 pace, beating my age 22 record from 1982, woohoo. But that last 0.6 was a long gradual uphill and I was dying. Splits: 6:04, 6:15, 6:24, 6:24, 6:39, 6:21, 5:26 (6:38). Placed 4th overall out of 257, placed 1st in age group and received a major award for my efforts.

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God doesn’t just make the world, he does something much more wonderful. He makes the world make itself.

— Frederick Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury