Race ReCap!!!

Our first 10 mile race and we knocked it out of the park!!! 

Man...I'm not awake.  Funny how ppl are different..even family.



Check out the gun show!!!  Oh yea baby!!



New skirt...will never wear it at this distance again!!

Our goals/plan:  Finish in 2hrs and 40 min. doing 16 min./miles with 1:05/2:45 run/walk intervals.  Walk through water stations, walk/stretch through interval only twice if needed, and fuel at miles 3, 6, and 9.

Did it work? We finished just under the wire with a 15:58 min/mile pace!  T and I finished 4th and 5th in our age group!  Granted, we were second to last in the entire day...but who cares?!  We finished UNDER our goal time (so what if it was by a hair?!).

My morning didn't start out quite like I'd planned it.  Even though I had layed everything out like you're supposed to, I ended up changing shirts 3 times.  I decided to wash my hair, which was not in the schedule.  I tried the new insoles that I had bought...but as I walked around while getting ready...I decided they were TOO different from what I was used to...so I switched back to the old ones.  I ran out of time to eat cereal like I had planned, so I grabbed oatmeal.  I was supposed to ride my bike to meet up with my partner, but I couldn't find the chain and lock...so I packed up my bike in the back of my car and drove to her house....eating on my way.  We decided to just drive there.  I felt rushed and unprepared...but it didn't give me time to feel nervous...so that was good.

We got there and stretched quickly.  We got to registration, hit the potty, and got to the starting line just in time to hit the ground running.  I had forgot to re-adjust our intervals so we'd be starting out running instead of walking...oops!  So we ran with the crowd until we made our first turn off the main road and then got back into the groove with our intervals.

There was a point where a police officer pulled up to us and said "We're asking all of the walkers to get over so we can get traffic flowing better....hopefully they'll go slow."  Uummm...thanks mister, for insulting us!  First off...we might have been walking when he said that to us...but we're not "walkers" (not that there's anything wrong with that...we get PASSED by walkers).  Secondly...thanks for emphasising that traffic would have to be sllllooooowww to pass us slow walkers. :p  Obviously he didn't mean anything by it...but it OBVIOUSLY struck a nerve.  lol  We thanked him for helping and let it drop after a few minutes of frustration. 

The first mile or two, I realized that Wednesday's RUN was obviously a mistake.  My legs were already hurting and it was definitely affecting my speed.  My poor partner...she was all set to hit the ground running and all I had in me was little baby jiggle jogs.  We passed a nice lady that was walking the 10 mile.  She was skinny as a rail and T and I decided she might be anorexic by the looks of her.  She was super sweet and we enjoyed our short conversation with her.

When we hit the park entrance, T's family was there to cheer us on.  T's little daughter "A" ran to join us.... so.freakin'.cute.  It gave us a nice boost of energy. 

Shortly after that, we hit our second water station and then we entered the actual forest part of our run.  We talked a bit here and there.  We started passing other runners that were on their way to the finish line from the 10 mile and some from the half marathon.  It was clear to us that we were bringing up the rear of our race...but we were in our time frame.  I had made a time split card, which was useful.  For our first 3-5 miles, we were pretty steady at a 15 min/mile pace.  That's about as good as we get when running as a pair.  I know that I hold T back, but this is a team effort...plus...it's our first 10 mile, so we're bound to get a PR no matter what time we finished! 


Yeah...sweating a lot.  See the eye candy in the back ground?  I'm married...but T needs a man.  I think a race would be a good place for her to do that. ;)  That was one of our topics of convo. during the race.  :D



Beautiful.

Somewhere around mile 6 and the turn around, we starting losing our awesome time.  We settled (or should I say I settled into a 16 min/mile pace).  T would get ahead of me, and then turn around and wait.  She's so awesome, I really appreciated that she'd wait up for me.  I knew she had much more in her than I did.  I was in a lot of pain, and I felt exhausted.  Somewhere in there, we had lost all of the other runners...they were way ahead of us.  It looked as if we were alone on the final trail out of the park.  That's about when the bordum sank in and we started singing Pocahontas songs like, "Just around the river bend!"  lol  She has a little girl...but I knew the song just as well...I was little girl when that movie came out.  It kept our mind off of things and had us laughing. 


Stopped to snap a pic of the pretty flowers...it was an awesome trail!

Then we hit the river green way...a path we know allllllll too well.  We knew that this was the home stretch...so that was somewhat comforting.  We saw T's family again.  That's when they said..."Come on, we'll meet you at the finish."  That's when we noticed that it was just ahead.  T shouted "April, this is the finish right up here...this is it!!!"  I put my head down and said "Let's do it!"  I was in sooo much pain...and my jiggle jog was even less than that....it was an old lady shuffle.  I honestly misjudged the distance and thought about walking again.  Instead, I dug my fingernails into my hands and picked up the speed.  When I saw the blue mats and the time clock that read 2:39:01.00 or something like that, I let out a moan and sprinted for the mats!  I have no idea where that strength came from...but DANG IT....I was gonna finish under the wire if I had a fighting chance!  And we did.  I high 5'd T and then bent over to catch my breath.  Wells L and her partner "C" were there to give us hugs and high 5's. 
My mother asked me the next day what it felt like once you were finished...besides the physical.  Seriously, once you're done...you don't dwell on mile 8, where you threw up your Bloks and Gatorade or look at mile 6 where you wanted to sit on the enticing park bench and say "screw it".  You look back on the 10 miles that you just finished without walking through a single interval.  The 10 miles that you just did while 99% of the town was still laying in bed.  The 10 miles that you just did and you're still standing (well, sorta).  The 10 miles that you just raced...for the first time EVER.  Yeah...it's a high like no other.  A huge sense of pride and accomplishment.  When I made the same New Year's resolution this year like I did every year since my butt got huge...I never would have imagined that I'd actually be doing it...getting healthy...working out...running RACES!!!  Yeah...that one was NEVER one the menu...but always in the back of my mind to try...SOMEDAY.  Well....this year...same day is here.  And in two weeks...I'll be running my first marathon with my cousin/partner/friend T.  It doesn't get any better than this!

 Oh yeah....my final time was 2:39:37.5!!!!!

T:  2:39:36.0....oh yeah...PR BABY!!!