Leesburg 10K

This race, on August 8th, will be my 6th race of the year, and my tune-up for the Rock & Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon in 6 weeks.

The course has changed since last year; the majority of the race used to take place on the Washington & Old Dominion Trail, but the new race organizer has decided to stage most of it on streets within the town of Leesburg. At first glance, it seems that the course may be a bit flatter this year. There's a pretty big rise in the first mile (over 2% grade), and another 2% grade in mile 3, but then it's pretty much flat to down grade for most of the back 3.1 miles.

It's also one of the bigger races in the County, with close to 800 registrants. But the race is a 10K/20K, so the last half of the race shouldn't be as crowded as the first half, with many runners continuing on with the 20K.

I'm using this race as a tune-up for the Half Marathon; I'm trying to see if I can run it in about a consistent 9:10 pace, since if I have any aspirations of breaking 2hours in Philly, I need to run the first half of the half (6 1/2 miles) in about that same pace. This will be a good test, since this 10K has a similar grade to the first half of the half marathon.