The Spa10k Recap

Whew! It’s done! 5 weeks of hard work and perseverance has paid off and I rocked my 10k race yesterday. We got in to the hotel around 9pm and after laying out my clothes for the next morning, I was asleep by 10:15. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to sleep because of nerves, but the long drive made me ready to crawl into bed. I slept fast and quick and woke up bright and early at 5:57am. Three minutes before my alarm went off. Why does that happen??? The Man showered while I found a vending machine and bought some nasty stale peanut butter crackers. I ate four out of the six and made some coffee. Then it was time to go! The start was at the convention center about .5 mile south of the hotel. I was happy to find out it wasn’t toooo cold when we got out the door. We got there about 7, so we had about an hour to kill before the start. I kept myself busy getting ready. This was my first race to use a timing chip, so it took a minute to figure out how to put it on my shoe. *See my Garmin watch?I’ve been using it for a couple of weeks now, and was excited about racing with it. I turned it on and quickly found out that the battery was dead.  I fully charged it before packing… I guess it was bumped on somehow. I was bummed. No Garmin 😦 And there’s the bib. #89. It kept me thinking about my big sister. She graduated high school in ’89. I saw that number a lot when I was a kid 😉 All ready to go!! Thumbs up was apparently my “thing” yesterday. I swear I gave a thumbs up to at least a dozen volunteers/cops while running the course. I guess I was encouraging myself in a roundabout way. I went to the bathroom at least three times in the hour I was waiting, but sure enough, as soon as they said it was time to line up, I had to pee again. No time to go though, so I felt like I had to pee the first 2 miles. Nerves, stupid nerves. Here we go! Rocking the thumbs up!

Mile 1 – trying to forget about the fact that I need to pee. settling in, keeping my pace. humoring myself with townspeople watching us like we are on parade. it feels like a parade.

Mile 2 – reminding myself that I have to do this for over and hour and zoning out a bit. pacer girl tells me my time, and I’m on pace. I feel good.

Mile 3 – water. yeah! I turn a corner and there is a mountain I have to run up. But, hey, I can do it. I pass people for the first time since mile 1. Training on my long hilly road at home as helped!

Mile 4 – start going downhill. crap, it’s going back up! ok, now down for good.

Mile 5 – more water! and finishing it out through the old neighborhoods. I probably could run faster, but I’m still afraid of burning out before the finish. FINISH! I finished in 1:15:21, which gave me a 12:09 mile pace. Still turtle-ish, but it about :20 mile faster than it used to be, so I’ll take it. Hey, it’s faster than being on the couch 🙂 We ditched the end awards and ceremony blah blah and went back to the hotel for me to get a shower and change. I was ready for some pancakes! This is supposed to be the place to go for breakfast. It was -eh- okay. I make a better pancake. I didn’t really care though, cause I was hungry! I had blueberry buckwheat pancakes with one egg and bacon. I have to say, I ate most of this. Hey, I had just ran 6.2 miles! I really like my race shirt! It’s a Brooks technical shirt. After pancakes we did a little Christmas shopping, watched a little football, I got a massage (heaven), and planned our evening. I had the Man drive me around the course so I could show him the mountain. Had to get out and take a picture. You can see the rise of the hill in the background a little. We were up a bit! It was a great day, but I had to make an emergency trip to Walgreens for some Tylenol around 5. My legs were so sore already! Luckily it kicked in and I made it through date night to watch some bands play. Can’t say I did any booty shaking, though. Found myself a chair and stayed in it! I’m so glad that I decided to do this race, and although I’m a little sore, I’m sitting here planning my next one. There is a 5k in two weeks that I’ll probably do, and then…  the half marathon?????  Do I dare?