First 10K: Mission Accomplished

My running goal for 2010 has been attained. Run a 10K, check! Was I fast? Nope. Was I full of enthusiasm? Not really. Did I show up, put out & finish? Yes I did! Good enough, then.

The Beginning
Race started at 1pm, so we got there at noon & it was still only 50 degrees. In the sun, maybe 55? But windy. In the car, it was 80 sans wind. I wanted to stay there… but I got out, got my bib, stretched, warmed up. My patient husband came to run this one, too. I usually don’t need a companion to get out & do stuff, but today, I was grateful for the extra push of a buddy right up to the gate at least. He ran his own race, of course, leaving me at the line & timing out at a 7:50 pace. Pretty darn impressive for an almost-50 guy who twisted his ankle just before our trip to Maine 2 weeks ago.

Timed my pre-race eating well, been hydrating well for the last 3 days & even got a last-minute choke-hold on Mother Nature, when on Wed. I suddenly realized that my “monthly gift” would arrive full force on race day. Again? I swear, I don’t run that many races & yet somehow, my girl-cycle is out to get me. This race distance was going to be long for me (at least an hour). An ultra tampon works fine for a 30-min. 5K, but for this? Too risky, so I caved into drugs. A quick call to my doc’s office (hooray for PA’s on duty who are also women runners!), $9 at Walmart & bingo, my body’s countdown to hemorrhage is ON HOLD. Best of all, I only needed 4 pills to get me thru, so I have enough leftover to swoop in & save several future special-event days from doom!

The race finally starts. The route was out-n-back, relatively flat w/mild rolling hills, only one turn, all paved (pre-walked it weeks ago). It was a boring course, so thank God for bright sun & peak autumn color. The trees gave me something nice to look at while I ran… & ran… & ran.

The Middle
Most exciting thing about this race: I think I can finally say that I got an inkling of what people mean by “getting into a zone?” It took a 10K for me to get that. The first 2 mi. are always hard for me. At home, “training” runs are stressfree, but at a race? My body & mind don’t do races easily. I am overhyped & nervous at the start, having stressed for hours beforehand about my readiness. It takes that first 2 mi. for me to settle down, to relax mentally & physically.

Mile 3 starts to come easier & once I pass the 5K mark, I’m thinking “There, it’s half over & I made it this far without incident…” so the next 2 mi. went really well. There were only a few people running near me & the terrain was flat(ish). I wasn’t cold anymore, nor too hot, breathing was going OK, so all the sudden, the running just seemed, well… really easy? It was like someone had their palm flat in the middle of my back, propelling me forward. I know I ran faster on Mile 4 into 5, I know it. Nice buzz… until about 5.5 miles, when the outside-back of my right thigh started to twinge. Ow. I pounded it with my fist a little & just kept on. Only a half-mile to go. How much damage can I do at that point? I may find out, if I’m lame by tomorrow?

The End
I passed Mile 5, thinking “There, each step I take is the farthest I’ve ever run.” True, I had never run further than 5 mi. — not even on a training run. Five was my top end. Now 6.2 is my top end :-)

I crossed the finish both happy & disappointed: happy that I finished & genuinely enjoyed the 2nd half of the race… but mildly disappointed that my time was 1:02:58. I had been hoping for a 10-min. mile, but got a 10:08 pace instead. Oops. Guess I need to hit that “hey, this is easy” feeling a little sooner :-)

Anyhoo, another race bib for the fridge & my last race of the year, unless I do a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day. That’s always fun, if it’s not bitter cold. Otherwise, I can begin my cold-weather, loss-of-motivation combat preparedness. I’m already on yellow-alert. Once it gets dark at 5pm & our woodstove’s going 24/7, I like to sit in front of it & eat warm pie… or crawl into bed early to read & watch movies. This could be a big problem, with a 15K goal set for June 2011. Middle-aged women who sit around the woodstove eating pie all winter, um, they don’t look good on a 9 mi. trail run come June. They perform even worse. So yeah, I’m working on a plan.

Tags: 10K, fitness journal, fitness over 40, milestone, putting off my period, running, stalling menstrual cycle