As the weather is getting colder and my body has not yet adjusted, I woke up this morning with the dilema of what to wear. Thanks to Kerri for suggesting "long sleeves and a pair of ass kickin' shoes :)". I also decided on long, running pants......just in case you were wondering ;)
Kerri also left this on my facebook wall:
"The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start."-John Bingham
Go eat some trail!
I was dressed, motivated, and ready to run!
This was a smaller race as far as the amount of people participating. The majority of people were choosing to run the 5K. The handful of us running the 10K started first with the 5K runners starting just a minute later.
As I began running and looked around me, I realized there were alot of people behind me, but they were all going to turn around 1.6 miles into the race. I was in a situation where it was going to be up to me to pace myself and just keep running. This seems to happen to me alot. I'm not fast, but also not in the walking group. I'm just in the middle, running all by my lonesome.
My next thought was that I needed to find someone in front of me to catch up to. So I set my sights on a couple who were doing that run (sprint), get tired, walk thing. I don't know about you, but this is one of my pet peeves! Whenever I start a race, my goal is always to just keep running. It does not matter how slow I end up running. The important thing is that I keep running. BUT then I get frustrated by those people who run to sprint ahead of me, then they start walking and I catch up to them. But guess what?? They start sprinting again and we end up playing this little game for awhile. I hate it!! I'm running here people!
So anyway, I ended up playing that game with the female first because the guy was farther ahead. I think I passed her 3 times before I passed her for good around the 2 mile mark. I then set my sights on the guy. I played the little game with him for awhile longer, but finally passed him for good around the 3 mile mark. Thank goodness!!
When I turned around, that is when I discovered how many people were behind me on this race. Exactly 3...the run/walk couple and an older man who had to be at least 70. I just kept running!!
Let's talk about my pace for a minute. When I started the race, I decided that 12 minute miles would be a good goal. This meant my finish time would be around 1 hour 14 minutes. I'm getting pretty good at keeping a fairly solid pace. At the first mile marker, my time was 11 minutes 45 secs. So far so good. When I got to the 2nd mile marker, I had slowed down slightly, I think my time was around 24 minutes 30 secs. Not too bad! The first half of the race was a little slower since we were running slightly uphill with the wind in our face. I was happy to turn around. I got to the 4 mile marker around 49 minutes. Still slightly behind my goal pace, but that was ok. I was still running!
My final time for this 10K was 1 hour, 16 minutes, and 45 secs. If I did my math correctly, I was running a little bit less than 12 1/2 min miles. I didn't meet my goal, but I tried my best and I kept myself motivated.
As I finished, I reminded myself of 2 things:
1. I ran twice as far as the majority of people who came out this morning.
2. I ran the entire race!!!
Go Me!!
Special Thanks to Erin Y. It was great to see you this morning. Thanks for being a friendly face before and after the race :)
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