Ran the 2019 Seasons of Hope 15K This Morning

Last year in early December I ran the Seasons of Hope 15K, held for the purpose of increasing awareness and funding for research and treatment of dystonia, a debilitating neurological disorder.  That race, which took place on Hawthorne Trail in SE Gainesville with Boulware Springs Park as the starting and finishing point, was overflowing with participants...largely I think because one or more local elementary schools were involved.  This morning I tried my hand at it again, but made sure I drove down to Boulware Springs Park in plenty of time to ensure myself a parking spot.  I need not have been concerned, though, because it seems there were much fewer racers this morning...and not a whole lot of kids, either.  The event is split into two races, the 15K (9.3 miles) and the 5K (3.1)...the latter naturally tends to draw more runners, as well as walkers (an activity I'm appreciating more and more as I age).  This morning it was in the low 50s with about 90% humidity at the start of the race at 9:00...by the end it was 63 with 72% humidity.  The earlier forecast indicating rain thankfully was wrong...it was partly cloudy (and now overcast).  Since they stagger the starts for the 15K and 5K races, I enjoyed the unusual situation at the beginning of not struggling to avoid tripping over other runners...especially the ones who would suddenly stop running while directly in front of me.  I kept at a sustainable pace while pushing myself the whole way...I finished with a time of 1:35:48, better than last year's Seasons of Hope time but slower than I've run other past 15K races.  The stretch of the Hawthorne Trail that this race (as well as last month's Tom Walker Memorial Half-Marathon) uses has a section with a lot of slopes and a couple of small hills...much different from the relatively flat courses I run around my neighborhood while training.  Still, I stayed running for the entire race, chugging up the hills when necessary (but not liking it a bit).  When I finally finished the race, I was spent...a good sign indicating that I was honest with my pace.  The event's volunteers as well as other runners were very supportive, shouting out encouragement when I passed by.  And as usual they had water/Gatorade stations along the route every couple of miles.  The only problem I had was my smartphone losing its internet connection at points along the course...I had been running while listening to classical music from WQXR/New York.  I'm writing this a couple of hours after the race and seem to be recovering well from it...other than some residual leg soreness I seem good to go.  Here's a link to the official results: [2019 Seasons of Hope].  For the immediate future, I don't plan to run any races in December unless I decide on a Saturday morning to run one of those free weekly 5K races at Depot Park in Gainesville.  In January I want to run the Ocala Half-Marathon on the 12th and the Newnan's Lake 15K on the 25th...I've experienced both of them before, even tackling the marathon distance in the Ocala event back in 2011.  In the meantime I'll keep on running...