My friend told me about this race and I decided since it was close to home I would do it. I had 2 goals:
1.) to complete it
2.) 1:30
I got to the race and went to pick up my shirt and race number. I went and looked at the course map which was printed out and laying on one of the tables. I was more concerned about the water stops on the course then anything. I packed my fuel belt and gels, but I couldn't decide if I wanted to wear it or not. As I'm looking at the map, a runner standing around the table asked: "Have you ever run this race before?" I replied with, "No." The runner looked at me, smirked and nodded her head. Now I knew exactly what she was implying because two days before I had a conversation with my friend about the race course. She told me that it was extremely hilly!!! Lots and lots of hills. I kind of brushed it off. I thought people were just trying to psych me out. (Little do they know, I am terrible at running hills!)
I did a short warmup, got my legs moving and I headed to the start. I ran into a co-worker who has run the race before. He gave me a run down of the course. He told me the first half is much worse then the second half. If I made it through the first, I'd be golden for the second. This only meant one thing to me, lots of hills in the first half.
I should have known when the race started off downhill. That really only meant one thing, it finished uphill! I know I'm not very efficient with running hills, so my plan was to make up time on the downhills. For most of the first half that is exactly what I did, until just past mile 4.
After mile 4 came a steady incline. This was the hill that I witnessed people in front of me walking, and heard people behind me moaning and saying "what a hill!" Personally, I felt like I was crawling up this hill. What a sense of relief it was mentally and physically when I got to the top. That hill was miserable. There were quite a few hills in this race, but that one really sticks out.
Runner's high occurred around mile 5. I really felt great. At 6.5 miles there was a water spot. I took an energy gel just before it, so I could run through it, grab water and wash the gel down. This became a challenge for me. The gel that I took was rather thick. The cup of water I got was rather small. Now anyone who has run a race knows that running with a cup of water in your hands is a task, let alone trying to drink from it. Some of it spilled out, some of it ran down my shirt, and some of it did get in my mouth. However, not enough to completely wash down the gel. Note to self, if you aren't that efficient in getting water at water spots, wear your fuel belt! I plan on wearing mine from now on for races 10 miles and over. Anything less I never get water on the course anyways!
At 8.5 miles I started to cave. Mile 9 was torture. My saving grace came with about .5 to go. I was running on a road and as I looked to my left there was the elementary school where the race started! But what awaited ahead was the uphill climb to the finish. It sucked, to say the least.
I crossed the finish line in 1:30. I met my goal.
The icing for the cake came during the awards ceremony. I was sitting on the cafeteria floor, stretching my legs, when they started to announce my age group. My name was called for 6th place!
Not only did I meet my time goal, but I also placed in my age group. All in all it was a great day and a great race. It was a lot of back road running, and the weather was in the 50s.
I felt a sense of accomplishment after this race, knowing that I ran 10 miles, but I also ran 10 miles over an extremely hilly course.
I will run this race again in the future, but I have to make sure that I start running some more hills!!!
The day after I was extremely sore and fatigued. But I am almost back to 100%. I'm not the only one though. I talked to others who ran the race, they were sore too!
No comments:
Post a Comment