I felt great for the first mile, despite the heat. It was nearly 70 at 7:30am, and really humid. As always, I struggle from on mile 2. I felt better at mile 3, then I hit the "hill". One of the main features of this race is the "hill". The 5kers don't do the hill, but the 10kers do...right after mile 3, in the middle of the race. What they fail to tell you, is that there is another hill, right before the "big hill". I ran the pre-hill, and was really winded. As I approached the big hill, I knew there was no way I would make it up if I ran it. So I walked it; I was glad to see that almost everyone else around me was also walking. Unfortunately, they were taking photos of the runners right at the top of the hill-right where everyone is walking, winded and tired. Bad spot.
After I got past the hill, my motivation picked up. I knew the hardest part was over, and I just needed to run 3 more miles to finish. I had a Gu, and felt really energized. At mile 5, my feet began to really irritate me-they had both blistered pretty badly over the past few weeks, and they were killing me. I told Niki after that I was sure my socks would be soaked with blood-thankfully I was just being dramatic, because they weren't. :) I had set a goal to finish within 1 hour 15 minutes. I was excited to be beating that pace for the first half of the race, but walking the hill ended that. I still finished in my goal time though, which made me really excited.
Here is a pic of Niki and I after the race.
I am so happy to have finished in a decent time, and am really proud of myself for only have to walk the hill. I celebrated by spending time with my family-this is me with my sisters:
Now all I have to do is try to figure out what goal to set next...there will always be another :)
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