YMCA Spring Festival 10k Race Recap

I had never run a 10k race before, so I was a little nervous before the start of this morning's race. I went in with three goals of varying degrees:  Not to be the very last finisher, Run the whole way, and Be under 1:15. I got up at 7:30, did some laundry, and got ready for the race. I was worried about it being really warm today, which was not at all the case: it was 48, windy, and misting rain when I was getting ready to leave. I ended up wearing capris and a long sleeve Nike shirt. After two glasses of chocolate milk (my swear-by-it pre race breakfast), I left my house and drove about 5 minutes to the Y.
There was a 5k that started an hour before the 10k, and there were still lots of people coming in at 8:45 when I arrived. I did a quick warm up jog, and heading to the start area. 10ks seems to attract lots of super fit looking people, who were somehow tolerating the cold in shorts and singlets even though they had no body fat. Amazing.
My goal was to run close to even splits, knowing that the 4th mile was all up hill. I hit the first mile at 10:34, and the second went by super quickly, around 21:00. The course was very well marked, with 5(!) water stops (I dranl at 2 of them), and I found myself running almost all the race in between a group of older women and a mom with two teenage daughters. By the time I got to the climb at mile 4, I was still feeling strong, though the downhills and up-and-downs of mile 5 left me with screaming legs. By the time I got to mile 6, I couldn't believe my time: 1:07:00. I turned on Empire State of Mind on my Ipod, ran as fast as I could for the last, uphill, 0.2 and crossed the finsih line in 1:09:10. Much better than I thought I could, with an 11:09 pace.

What went right today? I'll do a full breakdown of my thoughts tomorrow.

I then went home to warm up and shower, got pizza and froyo with my Mom, and headed to work.

How did your Saturday run go?