Race Report: Bayou Hills 10k

Last weekend, the day before our wedding, my (then) fiancé and I ran the Bayou Hills 10k. Given that it was wedding weekend, we ran this as a recreational run (and as training for an upcoming half marathon) rather than "racing" it. The route is definitely not a "fast" course anyway with plenty of twists, turns, and hills. While the total elevation never reaches more than 128 feet above sea level (this is coastal Florida, after all), there is also not a single quarter mile that is even remotely flat.

That said, the Bayou Hills 10k was one of those friendly, small, community races that reminds us that not every race is a NYC Marathon behemoth (nearly 45,000 runners) and not every race sells out in a few brief hours (like Boston). Locally, a week before this race the McGuire's 5k brought more than 11,000 runners out onto the streets of Pensacola. Bayou Hills was about one tenth that size. The course was never crowded. The water stations were well-placed. The finish line had plenty of the expected goodies (bananas, oranges, rice & beans, water, and beer). And perhaps nicest of all, an announcer congratulated almost all finishers by name as they crossed the finish line.

My fiancé crossed the finish line hand-in-hand, took a few photos, and ran off to the rest of our wedding weekend responsibilities. It was a good race for our "last run as single people."