Monday, April 12, 2010

10 Miles is FAR!!

I did it--I ran 10 miles in under a 14 minute mile pace and avoided the sweeper bus (would take runners to the finish if they could not finish fast enough)!

The weekend started out long.  I drove from my office to my brothers house on Friday to be closer to DC for the weekend.  The 50 minute drive took 2 hours and 25 minutes. I was exhausted, but excited to see the little people (niece and nephews) and it always lifts my heart that they are so excited to see me!

Saturday, I headed into DC to pick up my race packet and expected long lines at the expo.  The only long lines I saw were at the metro to get downtown.  Luckily, I was able to bypass most of the lines, and got into DC relatively easily.  The bib pickup was easy and quick.

Saturday night, I met Kristen to give her the two bibs from friends of mine who were unable to run the race.  It was a brief meeting, as it was late, but she is super sweet and I was glad to meet her after exchanging a lot of emails (and she killed the race!!  Awesome job!!).

I laid out my outfit, pinned on my bib and got ready for bed, where I tossed, and turned and woke up about every hour.  I was soooo nervous.  I woke up at 5 and got ready for the race.  I gave myself some time to dink around, eat a bagel and by 6 I was out the door.

I made it to the race about 20 minutes prior to the start, checked my bag and got into the corral.  And we waited, waited, and waited some more.  I took some pictures, but sadly, my phone met my kitchen sink last night and is dead =( .  Finally, we were off and it just was wonderful.  DC is probably my favorite place in the WORLD and the race took a wonderful route.  I got caught up in all the excitement and started out way too fast (for me) and felt it at the end of a mile.  I slowed down to take it easy, and ran into Kristen at about 2.5 miles.  I let the speed demon take off, ate a few sport beans and kept plugging away, enjoying the scenery and getting compliments on my socks (neon green and yellow knee highs a la TMB), outfit, and was interviewed on video by two guys on a motorcycle (seriously, I was about 5 miles in--what the heck were they thinking?).  Did I mention it was a beautiful day?  Clear, sunny and a comfortable temperature.

Around mile 5, my hip started to bug me.  Not terribly, but consistent, so I took a second to stretch my legs and try and working it out.  After that, I just kept going, with a combination of walking and running, which served me well and the hip well because I noticed it went away at mile 7. The last mile, I tried to push myself hard, even powering up a hill and just going.  I crossed the finish line feeling super proud of myself!

I finished the race at about 2:14...my watch stopped working and I thought I was around 2:05 :(, but no matter---I was still under a 14 minute mile and I did finish, which was important.  Hey, I even PR'ed (even if it was by default since I had no other 10 miler times).  I am super glad I did the race, regardless of how nervous I was and the disappointment I had with my time and recognizing I was not really prepared.  I think that with the Broad Street Run in 4 weeks, I have an idea of how I want to train differently, and I really hope to kill my Cherry Blossom time and get under 2 hours on this race!

Congrats to all the speed demons out there who ran super fast.  I hope to be as speedy as you guys some day!

Today is a rest day; I even took the day off of work!  I am working on stretching; I might taking a light jog and just try to recover.  I am hobbling like an old woman right now, but it was so worth it.  I loved this race, as hard as it was for me.  Its an accomplishment, and it makes me giddy to know I finished!  Now, I am super really motivated to get faster and better!!

8 comments:

Puddles of Run said...

10 Miles is far!! Congratulations to you!!! YOU DID IT! It was awesome seeing you, and you were easy to spot! I was looking for you the whole time before that and then I saw you and I thought to myself I was looking way to hard because you were easy to spot! Loved the attire! I'm so glad we got to meet, and congrats again on finishing and PR'ing! I PR'ed too :P

Charm City Kim said...

10 miles IS far! It is awesome that you PR'ed (who cares that it was your first 10 mile race... running 10 miles itself is a PR distance so good for you!)

dawn @ running the dawn said...

Good job on tackling 10 miles! That's such a huge milestone! And you got your goal, which feels amazing no matter what the pace. Go You!!!

Anonymous said...

so proud of you! soooo bummed I missed you! I wish i would have known you were rocking some tonia socks and mayber it would have made my search a bit easier! although we walked to the race from our hotel and being girls were late and only got there with about 10 mins before race start. sad we cant see pictures! up for a run this weekend???? oh and keep moving, i made the mistake of sitting way too much after my first half and was so sore but after the second one i walked around all day and fetl great =)

jamie@sweatyhugs said...

10 miles is far, but YOU DID IT! What an amazing accomplishment. I know you were worried about the whole sweeping thing, but YOU DID IT! Congrats on PR'ing as well. I'm really, really happy for you.

TMB @ RACING WITH BABES said...

You did awesome! Congrats! We need to find a smaller race to meet up at!

Kim said...

Great job! I am so excited for you! And happy the hip pain went away. I would love to do this race some day!

Anonymous said...

great job!!! you did super!
I ALWAYS have to remind myself not to start off too fast, I just get so excited!