Scotland 10K report

Ahh, April showers bring...what exactly? Morning broke and it was a constant rain. More than a drizzle, not quite a downpour. But the race is on nonetheless. Over 7500 racers finished the race - running 6.2 miles on a Saturday morning in the rain.
At the pre-start, they passed out a goodie bag and in it was a poncho. Thankfully, I picked up my number at the race - and I had the poncho in th bag. I know that if I would have picked up my number (and thus poncho) earlier in the week, I never would have realized what the poncho was (it looked like a clear garbage bag with a scottish flag on it), much less brought it to the race. So, I wore it pre race, and at least I was somewhat out of the rain. Oh, and the baggage area was a mud pit. And after we got in the corral, just standing there in the rain, already wet, trying to get ready waiting to start was a little tough.
Onto the race - nice start, national anthem on bagpipes. Scottish speaker of Parliament welcoming us with Scottish weather.
The race started on 62nd on west side. The first mile is actually uphill, but with adrenalin, etc., still a fast mile - 7:49. Second mile up and down on west side before the descent on the Harlem Hill. Mile 2 - 7:50 Mile 3 is down the Harlem hill and starting up the east side. Time: 7:42. Mile 3 to 4 is the crusher - up the Harlem hills to the reservoir. And it was still raining. Mile 4 is 8:08. Mile 5 and 6 are downhill and around bottom of park. Both were 7:51 or so. Garmin had my race at 6.32 miles(nearly an 1/8th mile longer than NYRR race course) and a time of 49:32. Ended up in 2000th place or so.
A good strong race for me. Watched my heart rate and it really helped.
One last note - the fans and volunteers were GREAT! If there was one thing worse than running 6.2 in the rain, it was standing there watching and cheering. And there were more on this race than any I've seen. Can't help but make you smile as they cheer you on.