Saturday, October 4, 2008

My First 10K!

Well, I DID IT!!! I completed my first 10K this morning! Here is my race report:

I woke up this morning with a lot of anxiety about the race. After last weekend's 10 miler I had been dealing with knee and leg pain all week. I only ran once this past week and did a lot of icing and stretching. I was concerned about my ability to finish, due to these injuries. I didn't have much pain anymore, but since I hadn't run all week, I was worried about how I would feel once I started running.

I got to the race about 30 min before my start...it was COLD! The temp was 37-degrees, but it was a beautiful, sunny day. I had signed up for the early start, for those who estimated to finish around 1:15 or later. I started with 5 other women at 8:50 am.

I felt great the at the start...no aches or pains at all. I was running about 11 min miles for the first few, without any problem. The 5K started 10 min after my start, so it was not long before I was being passed by the fast 5K runners. I should mention scenery here. Fall here in upstate NY is gorgeous...the leaves are all changing and watching the scenery helped keep my mind off of my anxiety. Now, I mentioned scenery because when the fast guys in the 5K started passing me, the scenery got even better. :) I know, I know....I need help....just keepin' it real. :)

O.k...back to my race. Once I got to the halfway point I was feeling great! I decided to speed up a bit and was running about 10:00 miles. I finished strong and felt great at the end. I did 6.25 miles in 1:06! I am very happy with my time. It was my first 10K and now I have a good starting point from which to work. I had my usual post-race juice and bagel and then cheered for those finishing after me.

By the time I got home, my legs felt tired and a little sore in the quads, but not bad at all. There was a fire fighter expo here I wanted to take the kiddos to, so I took a quick shower and drove them over to go look at firetrucks.

I am thrilled to have the 10K under my belt. The race today had both a 5K and a 10K. Last year I did the 5K...it was my first 5K in 12 years! I remember thinking that I could never do the 10K. This past year I have gotten more into running and realized that anything is possible. I have met runners who didn't start running until their 40s and have since completed many marathons. My biggest enemy was myself...now I am realizing that if I train right, there is no limit on what I can do. I have a magnet on my fridge that says:

"In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can"

I am trying to stick with that and see how far I get.

I am planning on taking this week off from running. I have had a busy summer/fall racing season and think my body needs a break. My next goal is a half marathon this summer...only time will tell. :)

11 comments:

DuckvilleRunner said...

Congrats on the great finish, and enjoy your week off.

Dustie said...

AWESOME job!!!! You should feel so proud!! There's no stopping you now! Big smiles for you!! :)~

Tanya said...

You ROCK! Seriously, that's an awesome achievement. Congrats to you!

WendyBird said...

Great job Sarah! By the way, (in reference to the comment on Tanya's blog,) the next time you find yourself in the market for a new MP3 player, the Sansa has a digital voice recorder built in so you can keep track of all the things you think of during your run :-)

Tanya said...

Woohoo! That's a fantastic time! Great job on the race!

robison52 said...

Congrats on your 10k finish! You succeeded, and we all knew you could! Smart to take a week off for rest, you deserve it!

BeachRunner said...

Congratulations on completing your first 10k and a great time too. Enjoy a recovery week as a reward for a job well done.

Whitney said...

Ah!! Your running inspires me! You are so diligent!

Anonymous said...

Oh my! You are amazing - I could never do that! Way to go - you should be very proud!

Sherri said...

Great job on your first 10K. Good for you!! That's great, especially since you felt great and sped up during the race. That's a pretty good time as well and a great benchmark to work from on future races.
Thanks on my scrap pages. I really enjoy it and do a few digitial pages now and then just for the fun of it. Mostly scrap paper layouts though. I stay pretty caught up but I don't take a zillion pictures either.

Anonymous said...

Great job! I have only done one 10k too and you've inspired me to sign up for another one!