The Little Chemist That Could: Race Report: Lake Summit 10 Mile Race

Yet another last-minute race sign-up... this one was the Lake Summit 10 Mile race! I've run and biked this loop before during training, but hadn't been able to make it to this race.

I signed up since I would already be planning to do about 10 miles of something on Saturday morning, so why not go to a unique place and run with others? I was debating doing a ruck for the 10 miles but decided I had the urge to run for speed instead.

I arrived in plenty of time, about an hour before race start, so I got my bib, chip, shirt, and socks (all the sweet swag!) and curled up in my car to stay warm and nap a bit before the group gathered at the start. I opted not to do any warm up miles, figuring the race distance was long enough to give me a good warmup. The temps were right around freezing, the sun was just starting to highlight the beautiful colors of the leaves on the tops of the surrounding mountains, and the mist/haze hung right on the surface of the lake. Absolutely beautiful!

The race began with a loop through Tuxedo Park, ducked behind the church next door, down a short gravel road for 1/4 mile, then onto pavement. For about the first mile, I was incredibly cold, particularly hands and face. I always have a fear that I won't warm up, but that rarely turns out to be true. After about 1.5 miles I was quite comfortable!

Official race photos by JayBakerMedia

After a mile or so of pavement, we hit the main part of the loop: the beautiful and flat (except for ONE hill) packed gravel road that loops around the south side of Lake Summit. I hit my cruising speed and held it pretty comfortably, gradually reeling in people in front of me, one after another. The big gravel hill comes at mile 4.5 and climbs for about a half mile. Then there's some downhill and you get to pavement again. After that you're climbing on road for a while, followed by some rolling downhill until you reach gravel around mile 7. Back on the gravel, it feels like the end is near (in a good way!). By mile 8, I've caught up to and passed the last person that I could see ahead of me, so I'm just pushing for the finish line at this point. I see the turn onto the road through the "town" of Tuxedo, and at this point the course goes up on the road, back down to the gravel behind the church, back up through the church parking lot, and then a reverse of the starting loop around the park. I'm tired but ready to be done!